The Digital Reflective Journal: A Self-Assessment Tool for Higher Education Students

In education, a diverse range of assessment methods with inherent strengths and limitations exists. Evaluation research aims to offer informed guidance for effective assessment techniques in online learning contexts. This study examines the Digital Reflective Journal, an online assessment method. It comprehensively explores this tool, analyzing its benefits, challenges, effectiveness, and implications from students’ perspectives. A total of 105 students, participants in the three editions of the collaborative online international learning created by the West University of Timisoara from Romania and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology from Norway, named Classroom Laboratory UVT-NTNU Joint Course, completed the Digital Reflective Journal. The digital reflective journals were used as primary data sources, resulting in 327 valid source documents that were validated, organized into categories of significance, and interpreted using the content analysis method. The analysis of students’ reflections revealed two main themes: the benefits (4 parent codes, 12 codes, and 5 aggregated subcodes) and challenges (1 parent code, with 4 codes) of using digital reflective journals. The findings revealed the following significant benefits of using digital reflective journals: increased involvement, commitment, and self-regulation of learning; enhanced teamwork and team-based learning; augmented feedback practice; and reflective learning. Additionally, barriers to communication in writing, issues with new information technology, and language and cultural barriers were some of the difficulties that students encountered. To maximize the benefits and address the challenges, future implementations of reflective journaling should consider implementing it in both individual and group learning activities, with priority given to the first year of study disciplines, with abstract content, or focused on developing teaching skills.