Enhancing student reflection using Weblogs: lessons learned from two implementation studies

Abstract

Various strategies have been recommended to foster student reflection as an important goal of education. In this paper, I describe two research studies where I implemented Weblogs to support student reflection in two graduate courses. In both studies students were provided with individual Weblog spaces to document thoughts, reflections and learning processes. The first study data from five student participants indicated that Weblogs were useful for archiving information and thinking; however, not all students engaged in the process of Weblogging regularly or in the process of reflection. The second study, implemented based on results of the first study, indicated that providing guidelines resulted in more consistent writing on the Weblogs. However, the quality and depth of posts still varied greatly and many students indicated the need for more guidance and structure for engaging in reflection on the Weblogs.

Keywords:

• weblogs
• reflective learning
• instructional design
• higher order thinking
• web 2.0
• research