Using student self-reflections to inform teaching during COVID-19

Carli Jonker and Lanelle Wilmot

Motivation and student support are always at the forefront of our minds as 21stcentury educators. One of the very informative initiatives the School of Accountancy utilised with their Financial Accounting students during the beginning of the online learning stage was to require students to complete weekly self-reflections. Only basic guidelines were provided to allow students to make the most of this tool. The guidelines suggested that the self-reflections cover the student’s grasp of the week’s topics, including what they struggled with and how they overcame those, and to explain the concepts in their own words. Students were encouraged to discuss how they managed their learning process during the week. This initiative is designed to create active learning where students are conscious of their progress, challenges and learning style in a continuous process of discovery and improvement. An important part of the self-reflection process was that lecturers provided individual feedback to students addressing their specific needs and motivating them where needed. We expected to use this to inform us of areas of content concerns so that these could be addressed timeously. But what we did not foresee was just how valuable this would be for us to understand better our students under COVID-19.

Some aspects we learnt are common to all students, regardless of their socioeconomic or geographical circumstances, while some are very specific. In general, the negative implications of COVID-19 on students can be categorised into three groups, namely students’ physical living environment, relationships and IT and materials constraints.

With the information obtained we were then able to see where students were struggling with specific course content, their approach to their studies and to adjust our online teaching style and activities to support the students better.

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