The Reflect element is a reflection and social learning element. When you use a Reflect element to ask explorers to respond to questions, the ten most recent responses will be made visible (but anonymised) to future explorers after they respond to the same question.
Expand the sections below to learn more.
Steps to add a Reflect element to a course
Steps to add a Reflect element to a course
Add the element to your topic or article 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 explorers and is used for reporting purposes. It also helps you differentiate between multiple Reflect elements within the same topic or article.
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 explorer 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 explorer submissions to be saved to each explorer'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 explorers 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
Video demonstration
In the video below, we show you how to add the Reflect element to anywhere within your topic or article. Please note, certain UI elements may have changed since the video was recorded.
How Reflect interactions work for explorers
How Reflect interactions work for explorers
Reflect elements are a great interaction to capture an explorer's thoughts, ideas, experiences, decisions, concerns, objectives and so on.
When explorers 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 explorer will see the questions and answers from the ten most recent explorers who have already completed this activity (without the names of those explorers being shown). This gives the explorer 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 explorers were asked different questions and therefore gave very different responses.
Examples
Examples
When you add a new Reflect element you need to create questions to ask explorers. 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 explorers.
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 explorer to reflect on the content they just learnt.
Similarly, the Reflect element works well at the beginning of a part to get an explorer thinking about what they will learn:
You can also use the Reflect element throughout a topic or article as an interactive and social way to capture the thoughts of explorers and get them thinking about the topic:
How does Reflect differ from Q&As?
How does Reflect differ from Q&As?
The Q&A element is similar to the Reflect element. Both elements ask explorers to answer an open question - the difference is in the feedback to the explorer after they answer.
With Q&A, the explorer 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 explorer can review answers from other explorers. Reflect is perfect for social learning as it allows explorers to contribute knowledge and compare to their peers. It may reinforce their thinking or challenge them with new ideas.