Journaling is certainly a great topic to explore with the amount of classes that require students to keep a journal.  I found the statistics interesting because it shows that 66% of the students thought that the journal aided them in remembering class material.  If this is really true then journaling is a valuable tool in learning and needs to be explored a lot more.  Thank you for discussing some very thought provoking questions in your paper.

I applaud you all for this article. You had some interesting information! I have attached my feedback below.

Thank you for highlighting the benefits of using journals in the classroom.  I teach courses in which a journal is required weekly so I enjoyed learning that so many students enjoy journaling and even more found journaling beneficial.  You pointed out that 21% of students thought that journaling promoted critical thinking or "deeper" thinking probably because the journal topics further explored class material.  This also brings up another research question - Does the purpose of the journal activity affect student perceptions of engagement or learning?  I also liked that you pointed out that students may feel more engaged when journaling due to the personal connection they experience.  This is highly significant to online learning since it may be more difficult for students to feel a personal connection when they are not face to face with others.  Thanks for your work. I attached a file with feedback.  I enjoyed reading.

As an online instructor, I think that it can sometimes be difficult to understand students' perceptions. There are so many different perspectives (some common and some rare), that it can be difficult to understand in what reality the student resides. Researching student's feelings about an assignment can definitely help to gain their perspective in an honest attempt to understand their perceptions. It seems like journaling is beneficial, and when students see their own perceptions in writing, this can help them to gain a better understanding of themselves. When students understand themselves, then it is easier to understand what the instructor expects from them.  

Having some experience with journaling, I agree that it can be a valuable learning tool.  However, it is not clear from your study how the journaling helped the students further explore the class materials and the understanding of class topics.  Therefore, I agree with your thinking that a rubric may have added to the reliability of the study.  Are you implying that the simple act of writing their thoughts on paper improved their understanding?  If so, I would recommend for future research that you conduct a study where grades of students who journaled are compared to those students who did not journal.  In this way, you can add to the results that you found in your current study.  

On a side note, self-efficacy, one-semester, far-reaching, and self-teach are not consistently hyphenated throughout the paper.

Overall, I think your study was solid.  Good job, and good luck with your research.

Your paper presented a thought provoking question and did a great job supporting the study. The data used to support your findings were relevant and practical. You stated that a total of 112 subjects (42 men and 70 women) participated as a sample for the study. I wanted to ask, was the selected group diverse (cultural, racial, or religion) to represent better population of our society or it was not considered during the study? This may be an interesting area to explore to find out how much influence demographic (culture, race, religion etc) might play on student perception of journaling or journaling and engagement. In other words, would students' journaling and engagement be the same across other cultures or could personal or family values distort students' journaling and engagement?

Overall, your paper was well supported and touched on an interesting topic. Topic even non-students can learn from and apply in their day-to-day living.

I appreciate your paper on journaling.  I find the topic to be unique and worthy of examination.  I was glad to read of the positive impact journals can make, as my experiences have been more negative.  My personal experience with journaling, as connected to the field of education, began decades ago, as I was finishing up my bachelor's degree, working as a student teacher.  The experience was not good for me because I discerned the cooperating teacher's rapport with me change drastically one day after she read my journal.  I didn't feel my written words were critical of her, but in order to make my journal more meaningful, I did question some aspects of her classroom.  I was never comfortable with expressing myself honestly after that, and only kept rote, shallow comments in my journal from then on. 

Since that time I have been in the opposite position of having students submit their journals to me.  I love to read those that include personal views with meaningful application.  Those that submit nothing more than a summary of reading material seem pointless for both the reader and the writer.  To prevent this, I agree with the idea of using a rubric.  You included many good areas of study and I wasn't surprised to see that students scored the life application of class category higher than most of the others.  Most students genuinely want to take away practical application from their studies and if journaling will help that, then it should be a part of the education experience.

Journaling is very interesting topic especially coming from the perspective of the students. It is evident that students will retain more information if they write about the material versus just reading or hearing about the topic. As educators, it is important to find ways to help students retain as much information as possible. If the students enjoy journaling as indicated by the student responses in which students found journaling to be fun.  It is easier to learn and retain information when something is fun and not looked upon simply as work. I was surprised to learn that 66% students found it to helpful and beneficial. That number could be even higher due to students not thinking it was that helpful as it might have been. Students may have learned more than expected without realizing how it aided them in the retention process.  By getting students to participate in learning activities they find engaging it increases the level of student engagement. A fact of human nature is that it is easier to learn things that we are interested in. It is also a great way for students to express their feelings, thoughts, and reflect on the material.

It was a very interesting study that deserves further investigation and exploration! Well researched and put together! This is something that students can use to aide them in the learning process!

Great research idea, anything that serves to help students retain information deserves further research.  I noticed many of your references were 10 years old. Your research may spark further interest in researching this topic.

I did like the fact the instructor didn't use all the students at the same time within the semester. Splitting two different classes and switching in the middle of the semester was a great idea. I would like to see this research expanded using examples from three different courses. Maybe computer science or business.  I'd also like to see this conducted in an online class.

The recommendations for structuring journal-writing activities can actually be utilized as a formative assessment for the instructor.  I don't utilize journaling as a tool, however, after reading this I'm thinking I think I'm going to embed in my syllabi.  

You wrote an excellent paper on journaling. I agree that there are several benefits for the students, even in the 8 week courses where there is so much material to cover in a short period of time. I had to write a weekly journal for each class while working on my MBA. It was more of a wrap up of what was learned each week and was not numerically graded, but given a satisfactory or unsatisfactory mark. I would like to see your further research on this topic.

I think you point out some very valuable information in that by including subgoals within the construct of an assignment or course, students can achieve smaller or partial victories toward achieving larger or long-term goals. Often students can be overwhelmed with large assignments or when first confronted with a 14 page syllabus. However, by included smaller tasks within the parameters of an assignment or the overall curriculum of a course, students might gain self-confident and self-efficiency skills they can carry forward in future educational and professional endeavors. Given the diversity of courses most students are required to take to achieve college-level degrees, as the findings suggested, journal assignments, or smaller assignments, may help student navigate difficult or prosaic topics and material. This information can be useful for college-level instructors who teach courses with traditionally high rates of attrition or failure.

You have provided fine research on this paper, with a good balance between foundational research and current study regarding journaling!  In this case, the foundational research provides a demonstration of how the issue has progressed over the years, and helps to explain why the research is important, now. 

The paper is well written.  The only structural issue that distracts is the fact that you hyphenate self-efficacy in one place and not in another.

Great job!  Thanks for contributing!