The Reflect element is a reflection and social learning element. When you use a Reflect element to ask learners to respond to questions, they'll see the ten most recent responses after they respond to the same question along with a link to see additional responses. All responses are anonymised.
Steps to add a Reflect element to a course
Add the element to your topic by selecting the Reflect option from the Content box, then follow these steps:
Optionally provide a label for your Reflect element. The label is hidden to learners and is used for reporting purposes. It also helps you differentiate between multiple Reflect elements within the same topic.
Determine the question(s) you want to ask. You can add up to ten questions (use the + button to add each new question) keeping in mind each learner will only be asked a single question randomly selected from the options. Alternatively, you can use one or more of the default questions by clicking Default Questions which have been designed to get you started or inspired.
Note: You can use the X to remove any questions you don't want to use in the question pool and/or edit any of the default questions by clicking into the relevant question box.
Optionally tick Copy the question and explorer's response to explorer's journal if you want learner submissions to be saved to each learner's journal.
Optionally tick the Set this reflect as optional (Explorers can progress without completing) if you do not want this element to be mandatory for learners to complete.
Click Save.
Note: We recommend adding some signposting/instructional text ahead of Reflect elements providing guidance to learners around how the activity works and what they should do.
For example, this may be something like "Let's take a moment to reflect by answering the following question. After answering, you can review responses from other people who have recently completed this interaction.".
Video demonstration
In the video below, we show you how to add the Reflect element to anywhere within your topic. Please note, certain UI elements may have changed since the video was recorded.
How Reflect interactions work for learners
Reflect elements are a great interaction to capture a learner's thoughts, ideas, experiences, decisions, concerns, objectives and so on.
When learners reach the interaction, they will be asked one of the questions you have established in the Reflect element. They can then type their answer (which may be copied to their journal if you have selected that option) using up to 500 characters.
After answering, the learner will see the questions and answers from the ten most recent learners who have already completed the activity (without the names of those learners being shown) and can click an option to review additional responses. This gives the learner a social learning experience.
They can review the responses from other people and reflect upon their own answer. If you have used a variety of questions in Reflect, they may see that other learners were asked different questions and therefore gave very different responses.
Examples
When you add a new Reflect element you need to create questions to ask learners. You need only have a single question such as 'What's the #1 problem you want to address?' or 'What's been your biggest achievement so far?', however, you can have up to ten questions which will be randomly selected and presented to learners.
Here are a few examples of different use cases.
The Reflect element works well at the end of a part, as an activity for the learner to reflect on the content they just learnt.
Similarly, the Reflect element works well at the beginning of a part to get an learner thinking about what they will learn:
You can also use the Reflect element throughout a topic as an interactive and social way to capture the thoughts of learners and get them thinking about the topic:
How does Reflect differ from Q&As?
The Q&A element is similar to the Reflect element. Both elements ask learners to answer an open question - the difference is in the feedback to the learner after they answer.
With Q&A, the learner receives feedback from the creator. So this is a good way to keep their contributions private or use Q&A to reveal additional knowledge. Use Q&A to capture private actions or responses, or to use a 'call and response' style of learning.
With Reflect, the learner can review answers from other learners. Reflect is perfect for social learning as it allows learners to contribute knowledge and compare to their peers. It may reinforce their thinking or challenge them with new ideas.