Skip to content

Journal

Summary

Journals are a personal space for reflection and communication between a student and teacher. They can be used for informal tasks or for assessment.

This guide covers how to use and set up a Journal, and is primarily aimed at teaching staff.

Relevant VLE site design principles

  • 4.1 Essential: The assessment section contains all information about module assessments.
  • 4.2 Essential: Assessment instructions are clearly labelled and explain the task and requirements.

When to use Journals

Journals can be useful in a variety of situations:

  • reflective practice
  • demonstrate development over time
  • ongoing individual project work
  • non-anonymous formative/summative assessment tasks
  • student-directed or teacher-directed entries

Case study: Using the journal tool and discussion groups on the Strategic planning: a journey module

Jonathan Fanning shares his experiences of using the Course Group, Journal and Discussion tools to support a highly interactive project-based module in SBS.

Watch their presentation:

Using the journal tool and discussion groups on the ‘Strategic planning: a journey’ module (Panopto viewer) (6 mins 42 secs, UoY log-in required)

See the full case study for more details and the transcript. You can also browse our full set of case studies.

Journal location

Depending on your intended use case, consider where students would expect the Journal to appear:

  • With module materials

    Journals used for informal reflection or project work may be best placed alongside the relevant module materials, or in a dedicated project area.

  • Assessment section

    Journals listed as either a formative or summative assessment in your module catalogue entry should appear in the Assessment section of the site. If desired, you can use a Course Link to also be accessible through a weekly content folder.

Set up a Journal

  1. In the relevant location, click Create, then Journal.
  2. Enter a descriptive title.
  3. Add a prompt with instructions into the text box, or click Auto-generate Journal to use AI to generate a journal prompt.
  4. Choose whether the Journal is graded and adjust other settings as needed.
  5. Set the Journal as Visible to students or specify Release conditions.

Reflective Journal with instructions on post requirements and suggested topics

This is demonstrated in the video below, or for more detail see Blackboard's guide to setting up Journals


Blackboard guide: Create a Journal in the Ultra Course View [YouTube]

Generate Journal prompts with AI

You can use the AI Design Assistant Tool to auto-generate Journal prompts based on your site content.

Prompts may be most useful for exploring ideas for assessments and project work, as tasks suggested are often more complex or time-consuming than appropriate for weekly or formative tasks.

Using AI tools effectively

AI-generated content is a starting point for your own content development rather than a finished product. You must always carefully check that output is accurate and appropriate for your intended use and adapt as needed.

See our general guide to Artificial Intelligence tools for more details on using AI responsibly.

Marking a Journal

Journals can be used for assessment purposes, and marked online in the Ultra site. You can include a marking rubric.

For details on the marking workflow, see Blackboard's guide to Grading Journals.