A review of strategies for supporting reflection in online learning environments

Ting ling Lai, Susan M. Land

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Reflection is essential to deep learning and problem solving. Recently, as online courses have become available for residential students on college campuses, it is often challenging for online instructors to foster reflection. From a socio-cultural perspective, reflection is developed through social interaction and semiotic mediation (Vygotsky, 1978; Wells, 1999). Students need to be given opportunities to review their own and others' mental processes and to use techniques such as writing or verbal reports to organize and revise thoughts (Cobb, Boufi, McClain & Whitenack, 1997). In addition, students also need guidance in reflection; without guidance, reflection can become selfreferential, inward looking and superficial (Boud & Walker,1998), and lead to aimless retrospective thinking. This paper reviews strategies for supporting reflection in online environments, primarily focusing on journaling / blogging and small group asynchronous discussion. We discuss how these strategies support reflection, and survey studies that investigate the effectives of the two strategies. We also provide suggestions for guidance and evaluation of reflection with online learning environments.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationDevelopments in Higher Education
PublisherNova Science Publishers, Inc.
Pages120-133
Number of pages14
ISBN (Print)9781608761135
StatePublished - 2009

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Social Sciences

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