Reflective Activities

brain powerIn many cases, reflective activities are described as the connection between theory and action. This type of activity is especially useful in scenarios where students are required to reflect on past learning, consider real-world implications, and let this reflection guide future actions and activities. One key application for reflective activities, which is often overlooked, is in the hybrid or online course environment.

Activity Ideas Tools for Creating Reflective Activities

Activity Ideas

Listed below are a few activity ideas to help you get started:

Ask Students to Engage in Reflective Journaling

One cornerstone of effective hybrid/online activities is independent learning. With reflective journaling, students can engage in independent learning online through activities assigned by the professor, experience something in the real world, and reflect on the learning/experience using the assignment tool in Brightspace.

HYBRID ACTIVITY: Consider an example taken from an event management course: Students were instructed through Brightspace to research programming elements in advance of an event experience. They were then instructed to visit Winterlude at their convenience over the course of a week, take a selfie of themselves at the event, and reflect on the experience (paying particular attention to the programming elements they observed) in a journal entry submitted to the professor. This experience allowed students to identify questions and observations, and compare theory with real-world implementation.

Encourage Students to Contribute to an Ongoing Blog

Blogging as a reflective activity provides learning opportunities that are in line with journaling, but promotes the creation of content intended for public consumption. Blogging about a given subject can be an excellent way to promote the development of communication skills, as students must think carefully about what they are publishing, how it is articulated, and how to title or frame the blog entry – essentially, they must think about their blog contributions as media, and they must create original content. Asking students to take ownership of a blog, publish to it regularly, and reply to comments from their peers encourages autonomous learning and promotes self-regulation.

HYBRID ACTIVITY: Consider asking students to take a topic covered in a given week, explore it further in their own time, and create a blog entry by a given deadline, using a blog tool. Successful blog assignments ask students to provide proof for their claims and arguments, use examples to lend clarity, and reflect on content to encourage relatability and make their posts more personable. Ask students to contribute to their blogs on a set schedule, and use the material to generate in-class discussions and inform lectures. It can also be really beneficial to ask students to follow a prominent blogger in their field to get a feel for the nature of blogs.

Facilitate the creation of ePortfolios

In a basic sense, an ePortfolio is an online space to store relevant content for a given person and purpose. For example, ePortfolios are excellent tools to prepare students for job search activities, as they can work on single elements of their portfolio (resume, cover letter, samples of work, etc.) and receive feedback from the instructor in preparation for sharing an ePortfolio publically. In many ways, however, an ePortfolio is a vehicle for learning progression, where students have an opportunity to reflect on their progress and previous learning, and make deeper connections about the articles in their portfolio and what they represent.


HYBRID ACTIVITY:
Especially relevant for courses where students engage in designing and creating content; consider asking students to contribute their work in the course (and perhaps other personal works and achievements if applicable) to their ePortfolios at designated points in the semester. Use some of the class time in the course to share best practices for building an ePortfolio, and reflecting on and describing content in that environment. Grade contributions on an ongoing basis, and provide a final assessment of the portfolio prior to course completion.

Tools for Creating Reflective Activities

Brightspace Assignments (Journals)

Journals are a personal space for students to communicate privately with you. Students can also use journals as a self-reflective tool to post their opinions, ideas, and concerns about the course, or discuss and analyze course-related materials. You can create journal assignments that are broad and student-directed as your students reflect on the learning process and document changes in their perceptions and attitudes. Students can describe problems faced and how they solved them. You can also create instructor-directed journal entries that are more formal in nature and that narrow the focus by listing topics for discussion.

Blogs

A blog is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended to share with others. Most blogs also have a commenting feature, so that people can respond to one another’s thoughts. Blogs encourage students to clearly express their ideas. Blogs also address the need to expand various aspects of social learning. From the instructor’s point of view, blogs are an effective means of gaining insight into students’ activities and provide a way to share the knowledge and materials collected.