Options for Reflective Work in Moodle
Many staff like the idea of having their students keep a reflective journal of their learning journey, but are unsure of the best format for setting this up in Moodle. I’d like to discuss two options that can be set up in Moodle to set up a reflective portfolio that also allows for the convenor to comment. There are in fact, a number of methods, but for the purposes of this article we will look at two of the easier one to set up – forums and wikis.
Forums
A forum allows students to create a series of posts reflecting on their learning journey with the ability for staff to comment on it and even set up grading for the posts. To make a forum into a reflective journal you will want to set up each student as a group of 1 and put then in a grouping. You can then create the forum and set it for Separate groups, and restrict it to only those groups in the grouping you just made. Each student will now have their own forum that they can post to without other students being able to see the posts.
To learn more about using forums check out the Moodle Docs on Using Forums.
Wikis
Wikis are a bit more flexible in that they can take a number of different forms. They are also more easily edited based on students’ changing understanding of their learning. But as a wiki maintains a revision history, it is easy to see where the student has made changes and how those changes reflect their new conceptualisations in their learning journey. Like forums, wikis can also be made into gradebook items. To make a wiki into a reflective journal you will follow the same setup as for a forum, creating groups of 1, setting up the grouping and then making sure that the wiki is set to separate groups and restricted to the grouping you created.
To learn more about working with wikis, visit Moodle Docs page on Using Wikis.
