Activity10

Reflection is a critical element in all learning, but even more so in the online learning environment. Discuss the role of reflection and strategies that can be used by instructors to promote the reflective process in an online course. Also, discuss ways that students can collaboratively reflect on course concepts.

**__Role of Reflection through Online Collaborative Learning Activities __** Learning environments have focused largely on prompting students relate new knowledge to prior understanding, apply specific strategies in novel tasks, to successfully perform learning tasks by engaging them in generating questions, solving complex authentic problems by thinking in both abstract and conceptual terms, arguing different perspectives, and reconstructing their own thinking. The reflection process transforms a participant in an online course from a student to a reflective practitioner, and ideally sets in motion the potential to become lifelong reflective learners (Palloff & Pratt, 2007). Instructors by facilitating meaningful thinking in students learning process promote the students to reflect upon their own thinking towards an assigned reflective activity, attitudes towards thinking processes, and their performance and cognitive abilities that can be used in online learning setting.

According to Dewey (1933), reflection is the process of reflective thinking that begins with making sense of current problems and existing experiences and establishing some hypotheses to examine possible solutions. Further, it associates existing experience, integrating all of the information to recognize concepts. The reflection process becomes complete when the solutions are tested or perspectives are formed. This process deepens our understanding of new information so that it can be better assimilated or accommodated to our knowledge structures (Piaget, 2001). Learners need to have interactions with others within their online learning community so that they can reflect on meaning derived from prior experiences. During these interactions, the learners receive feedback that affects personal understanding, and gain insights from exposure to multiple perspectives (Lai, 2006; Rodgers, 2002).

Reflection is the link between what is experienced and how the experience is processed to produce learning. Successful reflection is continuous, challenges students to think in new ways, help students to make connections, and is based on the context of the course (Collier & Williams, 2005; Hawk, 2010). Students practice reflective thinking as they connect their experiences to their education in an authentic learning project. By giving students greater control over planning, designing, developing, and implementing the authentic learning project activity, students learn to set goals and determine how to meet these goals.

Especially, to combat isolation in online learning environment because learners are separated by space and time, communication and interaction with other course participants can help students to develop a sense of belonging and a lifelong community (Rovai, Ponton, & Baker, 2008), which can be achieved through activities that enhance reflection (Anthony, 2008).

**Diverse Approaches to the study of Reflective Thinking ** Dewey (1933) introduced the idea of reflective thinking in education and stated that learning is reflection on experience and without reflection, experience is shallow, and at best leads to superficial knowledge. Von Wright (1992), on a metacognitive perspective, also asserted that learners’ lack of in-depth understanding or inability to reflect on experience may stem from having only surface-level academic knowledge or inert knowledge that cannot be used effectively for professional practices. Studies have shown that students who engaged in reflective activities can lead to changes to the way (e.g., beliefs, values) of dealing with their learning in the future by extracting inferences or meaning from their own learning experiences (Dunlap, 2002; Lin, Hmelo, Kinzer, & Secules, 1999). Also, students’ reflection can provide instructors with valuable information about their students, such as students’ learning processes, understanding, feelings, and even beliefs or values in working on their learning tasks in a collaborative online environment (Kim, 2005).

**Strategies to promote the Reflection Thinking ** The use of instructional strategies such as questions, self-explanation, and self-monitoring supports reflective thinking. These strategies prompt learners to answer questions about domain-specific knowledge and to explain their understanding on the subject-matter, thinking process or problem solving strategies while engaging in or after completing a learning task. Studies have shown that using metacognition question prompts as an instructional strategy made students perform better on a far transfer test of problem solving; and metacognitive question prompts encouraged students to ‘stop, think and reflect’ on their problem solving processes (Kim, 2005; Lin et al., 1999).

Today’s computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) paradigm, online discussion has been used extensively in learning and instruction. Online discussion is a way for learners using networked computers to exchange messages, and through text-based discussion, participants have opportunities for “exchanging and examining different views to form their answer, enhancing their knowledge or understanding, their appreciation or judgment, their decision, resolution or action over the matter at issue” (Dillon, 1994, p. 8). Especially for asynchronous discussion threads, because response is delayed, participants have more time to reflect and compose answers (Burge, 1994; Palloff & Pratt, 2007). Three effective use of instructional strategies that foster reflection in various Learning Management Systems (LMS) are //asynchronous peer discussion forums, individual online learning journals, // and //question prompts //.

In //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">asynchronous discussions //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">, students engage in discussion in an authentic distance learning activity. Students may be given two specific course-related questions on the weekly chapters which to express their original opinions and make comments on group members’ opinions. Students also have to summarize the principles and concepts they learned from the lessons, or drew from previous experiences to support their points and comment on other students’ postings. If it is a computer programming class, the students are required to augment their post with examples. The purpose of asynchronous discussion forums is a way to communicate and share perspectives on a common course activity.

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Online learning journals //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;"> may also be used as a reflection activity where students express in writing their understanding of, reflections on, “response to or analysis of an event, experience or concept” (Ballantyne & Packer, 1995, p. 30). Online learning journals are mainly used as an individual weekly assignment to keep track of course ideas, as well as to monitor learner’s working progress on a weekly basis during the course term. Specifically, students using online journals as their coursework activity should be able to: (1) express their observations, opinions, and experiences freely; (2) apply concepts they learned during the pertaining week; (3) summarize and evaluate their learning process; and (4) keep entries over a period of time. Merely engaging students in writing process might not support students’ reflection (Wells, 1999).

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Question prompts //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;"> in small group discussion have been found to outperform students who engage in asynchronous group discussions. A number of studies found that question prompts scaffold comprehension, metacognition, reflection, and problem solving. Students receiving question prompts generally performed better than students who did not receive question prompts (Hawk, 2010; Ge & Land, 2002; King, 1994).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">On-line learning has been largely used in higher education and has potential for supporting and prompting students’ learning. Most on-line LMS provide instructors and students with various technology tools to support instructional and learning activities. However, there is a limitation in terms of capturing what students do, how they make their learning progress, or what kinds of learning difficulty they have had (Choi, Land, & Turgeon, 2005). Therefore, instructors should always look for ways to introduce new effective learning tools to support learners’ reflective thinking in an on-line learning context to build healthy online learning communities.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students’ reflection can provide instructors with valuable information (e.g., students’ learning processes, motivation, and understanding on their learning task). Instructors can use this information to provide individual student feedback for enhancing students’ reflective thinking and learning performance. Communication and interaction with other course participants can help students to develop feelings of community (Rovai, Ponton, & Baker, 2008; Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">The distributed cognition takes a much more broadly systemic view of thinking and learning that includes interaction among humans and the tools in their learning environment. Gierre and Moffat (2003) explain distributed cognition as the larger mediating system in which a complex cognitive task can be accomplished that no one individual could accomplish alone. According to this view, cognition can be explained as a distributed phenomenon in which learning is mediated by interacting and interdependent elements that include tools, knowledge, interpersonal interactions, and the personal experiences of individuals within the group (Gierre & Moffat, 2003; Hollan, Hutchins, & Kirsch, 2000; Pea, 1993). Steketee (2002) discusses the tools in a distributed environment to be viewed as cognitive partners by the human elements of the system. These learning theories promote the view that the most engaging learning environment is a community. Sigler (2011) emphasizes that connecting students through community thus enhances student engagement as well as the depth and complexity of their online learning to reflect upon their ideas with their peers. Using digital portfolios have found to enhance student collaboration and peer feedback in online community.

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Using Digital Portfolios for Reflective Thinking to Collaborative Online ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">According to Zubizarreta (2009), ePortfolios are commonly used in online higher education to prepare students for lifelong learning as it teaches critical thinking and problem-solving skills (Heimich, Bhattacharya, & Rayudu, 2007). Use of portfolios facilitate student collaboration, peer feedback, and authentic assessment (Lambert, DePaepe, Lambert, & Anderson, 2007; Liu, Zhuo, & Yuan, 2004) and also help stimulate reflection and professional development. Researchers found that ePortfolios help to motivate students and help them to gain technology, reflection, and content-specific skills (Barbera, 2009; Chen & Chen, 2009). For example, Gatyan and McEwan (2007) found that online students enjoyed using ePortfolios because they diversified instruction and increased student motivation. Brandes and Boskic (2008) stated that the use of formative peer and instructor feedback allowed for enhanced reflection, and, ultimately, deeper learning outcomes.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Although the design and development of ePortfolios is considered an individual task, the inclusion of social activities foster collaboration and peer review among online students, Van Aalst and Chan (2007) study found that help students to explore topics and deepen collective knowledge when reflective posts were added to a shared digital portfolio system. In another study, Barbera (2009) found that the experience of sharing and reviewing digital portfolio entries among online doctoral students resulted in additional revisions and higher quality documents.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">In the online programming courses that I teach for, I encourage students to use digital portfolios through eCollege LMS as it allows them to share and reflect upon their entries after sharing with their peers. EPortfolios help the students to achieve their personal goals that are aligned with their degree program objectives in the following areas: learning and development, technological understanding, and programming certifications.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Also, if eportfolio portal is not available through the online LMS tool, instructors may take advantage to encourage students use Google Sites to create free, Internet-based digital portfolios to selectively share content with other peers. Zhang, Olfman, and Ractham (2007) suggested using Web 2.0 tools in ePortfolio development provide greater flexibility, peer review, collaboration, and social learning processes than traditional ePortfolio applications. ePortfolio sharing with their peers in an online learning environment encourage students like they were part of a community and get to know their classmates better. Integrating digital portfolios in the course had added value to the online students as it helps them to organize their learning, assignments and visualize how it fits in to their degree program objectives.

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Conclusion ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Learning and sharing the thought process cooperatively in groups has a positive effect of achievement. Students may reflect on their own learning experiences through individual tasks or use such as digital portfolios to share their reflection with their peers. As online education has exponentially grown, collaborative reflection may provide students with an opportunity to share their reflection on learning experience with their peers and to think more reflectively through peer interaction. Online instructors should give it a thought to compare collaborative reflection with personal reflection and explore the effects of collaborative reflection on both individual and group performance to see which would work better to adapt for their virtual classrooms to build interactive online community. A qualitative approach may be appropriate to explore future research in introducing collaborative reflection in virtual classrooms depending upon the course disciplines.

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