Reflective Activities

Evaluation is a critical component of all instructional activities.  It provides the instructor with important information on how the course was received and understood by the participants.  A well designed course or learning activity begins with a plan for evaluating the learning; both formal and informal processes should be included.  Reflective activities can be a valuable tool used to conduct informal evaluation of the learning.  Conrad and Donaldson (2004) tell us that reflection is a major component of engaged learning.   In e-learning environments reflective activities can be used to enhance the quality of the student experience and can set one online course apart from others. 

It is important that the online learning experience be more than a web-enabled independent study course and that the online course truly provides an interactive experience for the student.  When the students are required to be participative in the online course, engaged learning usually occurs.  To evaluate this learning then, the instructor can include reflective activities like journals, sharing an “aha” experience, or other activities that require open and honest reflection of the course and its content. 

Reflective activities can be insightful for the student in that they require them to dig deeper into the course content and express their thoughts and opinions on the material.  But reflective activities are most useful for informal evaluation of instruction.  In the e-learning environment, the instructor is not in front of a group of learners where you can assess if students understand by watching for body language and expressions.   So to accomplish this same type of informal assessment in the e-learning environment the instructor needs to incorporate some type of evaluation activity.  One manner of doing this can be to use quizzes based on the textbook material that informs the instructor on whether the student has read the text or not.  But the use of quizzes based on the reading only tells you the student read the book, but not if they understood the material in the text.  Adding a reflective activity based on the reading that requires them to research other material that can be used to explain the text can provide the instructor valuable information on the level of understanding.  Placing reflective activities throughout the course allows the instructor to adapt or change the structure of the course while in progress to enhance both the student experience and their learning.

Conrad, R.-M., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.