BLOGGING, JOURNALING AND REFLECTIVE WRITING: A SNAPSHOT OF STUDENTS’ PREFERENCES & PERCEPTIONS FROM TWO AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES

This paper investigates the pedagogical benefits and challenges of using blogs as well as journals in assessing reflective writing in Clinical Legal Education learning. Recognising that millennial students have diverse learning preferences, the authors administered a survey to explore student preferences for different styles of reflective activity, contrasting peer to peer blogging with student to teacher journaling. Our findings suggest that some of the traditional ideas about privacy and self-disclosure in reflective writing are not of significant concern to students, who see benefit in sharing experiences with each other as part of a learning community. However, our 1 Matthew works at the UniSA Australia (“UniSA”). He is the managing solicitor of his law school’s inhouse legal clinic and also coordinator and teacher in two CLE courses: Legal Advice Clinic and Law Professional Placement. Margaret works at Adelaide (“Adelaide”). Director of the Clinical Legal Education program, she manages four law clinics operated by the Law School, a small externship program, and teaches the elective subjects Clinical Legal Education, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Dispute Resolution and Ethics. Matthew and Margaret acknowledge the kind support of the Australian Collaborative Education Network Limited (ACEN) grant which has supported our research. We also thank our colleagues for their support in this project. Of course, all mistakes are our own.

findings also indicate that the opportunity of private reflection with a teacher is valued by students as part of the reflective learning experience. This paper outlines the approach to blogging adopted in our teaching practices and concludes that there are many benefits to thoughtfully designed blogging in Clinical Legal Education reflective exercises.
Designers of reflective writing assessment will find this paper a useful source of related literature and ideas for developing journaling and blogging for reflective learning.

Reflective journaling has been a consistent component of learning in Clinical Legal
Education (CLE) for decades. Technological change does not just offer different media for reflection but enables different learning dynamics that reflect the technology driven lives of our CLE students.
In 2018, Matthew Atkinson at the University of South Australia ("UniSA") and Margaret Castles at the University of Adelaide ("Adelaide") started using blogging in addition to journaling as a medium for students to engage in reflective writing as part of their CLE course assessment. In both Matthew and Margaret's CLE courses, student learning occurs on placement at their respective university's law clinic or at an external organisation such as a law firm or government agency, with students doing legal work for clients under the supervision of a solicitor. Matthew and Margaret's course assessments are underpinned by the understanding that reflection and reflective writing are key components which enable students to find meaning and context in the law and the legal work that they are doing, 2 and that reflective practice is a core function of CLE. 3 Margaret's approach to reflective writing has evolved over 20 years teaching CLE.
Originally, students submitted a collection of journal entries to be marked at the end of the teaching semester. Over the years this process has been adapted -first, to require sequential submission and grading of journals so that students receive feedback on their work before submitting the next entry; now based on two sequential dialogic journal discussions 4 between student and teacher, with both original journal entry and students' responses to questions graded. These adaptations were prompted by concerns around the authenticity and equity of journaling, particularly that many portfolio as a means to assess students' learning from a clinical placement. 6 However, the new capstone CLE courses included an online assessment component that provided for early feedback and opportunity for students to share their placement experience with peers. Matthew knew that Margaret was using blogging in her CLE course, and thus thought he should speak with her.
Matthew and Margaret's discussion and collaboration about the use of blogs and journaling gave rise to the idea of conducting research into student preferences and perceptions of blogging and journaling in reflective writing. They were particularly interested in probing the perceptions and preferences of IT sophisticated post millennials, 7 who have grown up using online communication modalities that could not have been imagined in the days when journaling as a model for reflective writing in CLE was first adopted. 8 It is worth noting that as the paper goes to press we are emerging from an unprecedented period of isolation, as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, with enhanced dependence upon technological communication, making this discussion very timely.  Education 181, While there is debate about the time range of millennial students' birth years, it is generally accepted that millennial students as those who are born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s. This article reports on the results of our research and is divided into five parts. Part II provides background into our CLE courses and contextualises the use of blogging and journaling as pedagogical tools to promote reflective practice both in and out of the classroom. Part III outlines the research design and methodology employed in examining student preferences and perceptions of reflective writing in blogging and journaling. Part IV sets out discussion and analysis of student response to the research questionnaire and also data from follow-up focus group sessions. Part V offers some preliminary conclusions and recommendations to contribute to best teaching practice when integrating blogs and journals in teaching and assessment.

(a) How Matthew and Margaret Teach Blogging, Journaling and Reflective Practice
Our CLE courses follow a typical pattern for CLE in Australian law schools. CLE is generally a final year subject, coming towards the end of the substantive law curriculum (after the students have completed foundational subjects including contract, tort, criminal, administrative law, etc.) at which time students have a reasonable grounding in these basic legal principles.
At the University of South Australia, the CLE courses are categorised as 9-point (which is a double-weight credit course for the law program) final year capstone subject. 9 All students enrolled in the law program are required to obtain 18 points of capstone courses and most law students enrol in at least one of the CLE courses, Legal Advice Clinic or Law Professional Placement. 10 Together the CLE capstone courses have approximately 120 students enrolled over a year across 3 teaching terms of 10week duration. 11 Assessment of both courses comprise of placement evaluation (attendance together with a work portfolio worth 40%), online forums (3 x 300/400 word blogs, each worth 5%), and a reflective report (3,000 word journal for Legal Advice Clinic/4,000 word journal for Law Professional Placement respectively worth 45%). The online forums, which are due in weeks 2, 5, and 8 during the teaching term for both CLE courses, require students to write a blog entry about a topic relating to their placement experience and learning. These include reflection on placement goals, and depending on the CLE course, also involve students reflecting on client interviewing, supervisor feedback, access to justice and challenges faced on placement. For both courses, the blogs help students prepare for their reflective report: teacher feedback is designed to help students engage in deeper reflection of their topic and also understand how to write in the reflective genre; likewise, students have an opportunity to learn about their peers' experience and approach to reflective writing.
Teacher feedback and participation in student blogs therefore has both formative and summative aspects. The reflective report, which is due a fortnight after the conclusion of the teaching term, is a journal of placement learning -students are required to reflect on their placement performance, and topics relevant to their placement including client-centred practice, access to justice, and wellbeing in the law. In this reflective report, students are expected to highlight their learning by synthesising their placement experience with relevant academic literature from a teacher curated reading list. Further, students can expand on their published blog topics and are also required to use their peers' blogs as a perspective to analyse their placement experience and learning. Appendix A sets out full details of UniSA's instructions for students with respect to the online forums and reflective report together with the assessment rubrics.
At the University of Adelaide, the CLE course is a three-point elective (which is the common credit weight for most subjects across the law program) titled Clinical Legal Education. It takes about 110 students (who are typically in their final year of their degree) per annum over 3 semesters; students are placed in one of five Law School Clinics, one of which post-dated the commencement of this research. 12 Assessment of the subject comprises assessment of placement engagement (worth 35%); 4 reflective writing pieces (blogs and journals in total worth 35%) and a single major project which may be completed individually or in small groups (worth 30%). All assessment is 12 See Adelaide CLE course information webpage: <https://law.adelaide.edu.au/free-legal-clinics/> summative. For blogging, students must complete 2 x 6-800 word blog entries (each worth 7.5%) in the first part of the semester, specifically to capture student thoughts in the first 5 weeks of placement when the learning curve is very steep, and to help establish a sense of community between students at the start of the subject. Each student posts a blog and also responds to another student's blog with their own ideas, observations and suggestions. Students can read all of the blog entries and replies but are only required to answer one. Students have so far agreed to a protocol to answer a blog that does not yet have a response so that everyone gets comments. 13 Both contributions (original blog and answer) are graded and students are given specific feedback on examples of good reflective writing and on how the students could engage in deeper reflection. Suggested blog topics that coincide with seminar topics and the anticipated learning arc students will follow are provided for each entry, but students may also choose their own topics.
In addition to blogging, students must also complete 2 x 800 word journal entries and are then required to respond to specific teacher feedback and questions about their entry via a private discussion board (each sequence being worth 10%.) 14 Journals occur in the last 4 weeks of the course when students have greater experience on placement, 13 While this restricts students from answering a particular blog that they are really interested in if someone has already done so, it does require intellectual engagement and perspective development by turning students' minds to diverse issues. Students are also permitted to add a second answer to an existing blog, provided students have already answered one without an answer. 14 In first semester 2018 assessment comprised 3 x journal entries. However, after this semester Margaret felt that the depth expansiveness and quality of journal entries was such that reducing this to 2 entries each worth 7.5% was appropriate. In 2019 the structure has been varied: 3x blog entries/responses worth 5% each, followed by 2x journal dialogues each worth 10%. and have completed most of the seminar program, to ensure sufficient material and experience to draw on in reflective journals. Teacher comment and feedback on this assessment is designed to prompt deeper, focused reflection and to ask students to consider different perspectives. For example, the teacher may direct students to additional literature or pose a question to prompt further thought about the reflected topic. Appendix B sets out full details of Adelaide's instructions for students with respect to the blogs and journals together with the assessment rubrics.
Both Matthew and Margaret use blogging and journaling as a tool to promote reflection in their CLE courses. With blogging, students are able to practice reflective writing, see their peers' work, and obtain guidance from the teacher that assists with journaling. However, Matthew and Margaret's approach differs in that Margaret's assessment provides for a more structured conversation between students and the teacher. Margaret's students are assessed on their feedback and peer learning through their responses to other blogs to demonstrate the following: first, students have "heard" the comments of the blogger; second, to contribute something of their own experience or thoughts to the conversation; and, third to leave the blogger with something new to think about or consider. Matthew's blogging and journaling activities are not designed in this manner, mainly due to the due dates of assessment.
However, he encourages this process through discussion of blog entries in the classroom and during placement at the Legal Advice Clinic. Furthermore, although it is not required, some students also provide supportive written responses to their peers' blogs. As discussed above, our courses only require two or three blogs from students. This is contrary to some views that multiple entries are ideal if reflective practice is to become embedded. 15 Our experience has been that students rapidly develop blog/journal fatigue, which can affect the value of reflection.
Matthew and Margaret's CLE courses provide students with guidance on reflective processes to support students with their journaling and blogging. This takes the form of Kolb's learning cycle, modelling the four phases of preparation for the task by reference to existing resources, engagement in the task, reflection on the process, and preparation for the next engagement incorporating further preparation based on reflection. 16 At Adelaide, students are asked to do short activities in class and then write a reflection on it demonstrating these four steps, and the students are evaluated in class on a document viewer so that all students can see the process in action. At UniSA, students are introduced to reflective practice by considering Georgina Ledvinka's student A and student B interviewing vignette. 17 Through this introduction students use mentimeter to highlight their understanding of reflective practice by creating a word-cloud which contains the reasons why they think student B (who is far more reflective about their experience) will learn more than student A 15 Freeman, W. and Brett, C. (2012)

(b) Contextualising Reflective Practice and Reflective Writing
The benefit of reflective practice and the concomitant pedagogical role of reflective writing is well accepted in CLE. 19 Law student engagement in reflective practice 'promotes innovative and critical thinking, strengthens legal professionalism, and builds a stronger aptitude for problem-solving' 20 . Schon coined the term reflective practice and it is used to describe the process of developing professional knowledge and skills. He posited that mastery of professional knowledge and skill is best achieved when a professional can reflect in and not just on their action. 21 Schon's work has had a profound influence on course design in CLE; and, since his exposition of multiple models of reflective practice have been developed to highlight different levels and stages. For example, Hatton and Smith propose four levels of reflection: descriptive (recall); descriptive reflection (individual perspective); dialogic reflection (stepping back from individual perspective and recognising alternate views and explanations); and, critical reflection (analysing and synthesising multiple perspectives together with historical and socio-political critique). 22  Leering conceives of reflective practice as having three overlapping aspects: reflection on practice; self-reflection; and critical reflection. She notes that these overlapping aspects exist in a community, and the rigour of reflective practice is maximised when it is shared with others to enable feedback and further investigation. 23 Both the Leering and Hatton and Smith models logically break down the micro-reflection that students will ideally follow to become reflective practitioners. All models of reflective practice are conceptually consistent; 24 the aim is for students to develop the skill of being able to contemporaneously act as a legal professional and also engage in innovative and critical thinking to solve problems. 25 CLE courses are designed to give law students an opportunity to reflect and think critically about the law from a range of perspectives and to help provide a legal service. 26 Matthew and Margaret's CLE courses focus on promoting access to justice, target disadvantaged and vulnerable clients, and also utilise a multidisciplinary framework to help students to reflect and recognise new perspectives in law. 27 Students are encouraged to reflect on their performance with functionally evaluative  31 The reading list includes the articles cited above including Hyams (n 29); James (n 28); and Leering (n 23). Further detail about the instructions provided to students for reflective writing prompts can be found at Appendix A and B.
moments' for students that may expand their perspective, professional aspirations and understanding of law. 32 Capturing this moment in reflective writing helps ensure it is memorable.

(c) The Challenge of Teaching Reflective Practice and Writing
However, teaching and facilitating reflective practice and writing is challenging. Both practices are deeply personal activities, involving intimate self-disclosure. They can provide both unflattering self-discovery 33 and an opportunity to explore personal thought and its relationship to the outward professional world. 34 In addition to selfdiscovery, meaningful reflection and reflective writing also requires students to critique and contextualise their performance and its relationship to the community using different perspectives including historical, social, and political. 35 These perspectives are often introduced through literature and students are often assessed (including ours) on their ability to analyse and synthesise their placement experience against such material. 36 Our experience with law students has been that even before they encounter these challenges, they may be unfamiliar with reflective practice (in 32 Donnelly, L. (2017)  fact, CLE may be the first time students have encountered this concept) and are often quite uncomfortable with the idea of using first person language and expressing their own views. 37 Student discomfort with reflection and reflective writing is largely the product of years of learning about the law in an environment that privileges a belief that black letter law and "legal" reasoning is paramount. 38 Often students say they "don't know what to talk about", or need to be assured that their own ideas are "ok". 39 We and other CLE teachers and supervisors often recommend to students that a particular issue or an event that students are discussing is worthy material for reflection. We also encourage (and as discussed above require through assessment) students to synthesise and analyse their experience using different perspectives through literature and conducting independent research. Students seem, at least in the early part of clinical practice, to have difficulty identifying issues from their placement experience as important enough to discuss. Likewise, students often have difficulty with connecting their reflected placement experience to different perspectives highlighted in literature. Prompting reflection and reflective writing in a manner that maximises its benefit to a cohort of law students requires diverse teaching strategies and tools. This conforms with Moon's recommendation that support be provided to enable students to engage effectively with reflective writing. 40

(d) Bringing Blogging into the Equation
One of these ideas is blogging, an activity that is popular among students, reinforces learning, and fosters a shared, collegial learning environment. In 2011, Kift et al identified a range of features in legal education that contributed to heightened law student distress, nationally and globally. 41 Since that time there has been a surge in commentary on the importance of "community" in learning in other disciplines, both to complement learning, and manage wellbeing. The value of networked community engagement, 42 the impact of peer support in creating productive learning communities, 43 with communities expanding things in common, sharing private and collective work achievements, and equipping students to become leaders in their future professional communities. 44 Unlike journaling, which is traditionally characterised by solitude, and an emphasis on individualised introspection, blogging permits peer-to-peer reflection and immediate peer-to-peer (and teacher) feedback. generation. Millennials have embraced technology and value "real time" feedback, prefer channel broadcasting (blogging and social media) over one-to-one electronic communication (email and short text message), and value peer teamwork, learning and collaboration. 45 For the millennial generation blogging may therefore have tremendous pedagogical benefit.
Of course, blogging is not without potential downsides. 46 Students need training in how to write for an (academic) blog to understand the difference between narrative storytelling and critical evaluation of experience. This is particularly so of law students for whom blogging and journaling is novel, against the context of legal education in which personal opinions (as opposed to precedent and predictable scholarly conclusions) are not valued. 47 Voluntary engagement with blogs can be sporadic and decline over time. 48 Intentional blogging can be done "in the moment", but in reality is likely to be done some distance from the events. This might require a two-step process -the student first captures what happened and some of their initial thoughts, and then later engages in deeper reflective writing to allow thoughts to be explored and analysed. 49 The few published refereed articles in legal education that refer to using a blog for reflective writing have assumed that student authorship is kept anonymous. 50 Anonymity in journaling is also considered critical. 51 Maintaining this anonymity is based on the expectation that it will improve authentic reflective practice amongst students. We have taken perhaps a unique approach that diverges from traditional orthodoxy in that we have used blogging in such a way that the students know the identity of their peers' blog entries. This is partly for the practical reason that neither University's online learning platform enabled anonymous contributions to blog or discussion functions. 52 Specific protocols for public blogging were therefore required.
We both developed protocols that are explicitly communicated and agreed with students. Ensuring that students do not feel threatened or belittled by any commentary; courtesy; always being constructive; acknowledging different perspectives; taking time to consider the content and phrasing of comments; and, being respectful of both views and people is discussed in the classroom at the 49 Beveridge, I. (2006) 52 Blogs are not public; they are available only to the enrolled class. When faced with this reality, we concluded that the potential benefits of identifying peers by name and creating a respectful community of practice was sufficiently good reason to continue without anonymity. Blogging is managed through university learning platforms, MYUNI and at Adelaide and Moodle at UniSA. commencement of each semester. Course material and class content consider the role and values of feedback, and how to give and receive constructive feedback. 53 It is also consistent with our expectation that students reflect the standard of inter-collegiate behaviour expected among lawyers. We both oversee and curate the blogs throughout the course, which enables issues arising to be canvassed when needed, both individually with students, and in the classroom. This monitoring also enables us to refer students to their peers' blogs and encourage further discussion where students might find this useful.
Our experience has been positive, with students predominantly reporting satisfaction and confidence in the public nature of blogging. Towards the end of the period of this study, Adelaide accessed and used software that concealed student names in blogging. That experience is subject to a current survey seeking to establish the value that students place on anonymity in this context. Responses so far suggest marginal but not overwhelming preference for anonymity.

(d) Goal of our research
In light of the foregoing, research into our students' preferences and perceptions about reflective writing and the use of blogs and journals in CLE is timely, especially in the millennials era. In contrast to the journal between teacher and student the risk of judgment (real and perceived) is much higher in a broader communication loop such 53 The value of this learning extends beyond immediate reflective writing skills -giving receiving and evaluating feedback is a critical aspect of day to day professional life. as blogging. Such risk may impinge on enhancing reflective practice. That said, introducing class interaction built on student engagement with online blogging enables shared reflection, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and feedback, and can make good use of group dynamics as a learning strategy. The online format allows instant posts about issues of interest, and for most of our students this medium is part of the pervasive social networking communication that students engage with on a daily basis. 54 Socially connected communication is a key feature in the lives of our students, and blogging enables an element of that social connectedness into the classroom. Having a greater insight into our students' perceptions and preferences with blogs and journals will give us a better understanding of these dynamics and also with their experience of reflective practice. We hope this research will also assist in developing best practice for teaching reflection and reflective writing when blogs and journals are used in clinical classes.

Research Design and Methodology
The research design comprised of a survey-monkey questionnaire (see APPENDIX C) and focus group sessions to follow up any questions that arose from the survey results.
All students enrolled in CLE courses at Adelaide and UniSA during teaching terms 1 and 2 in 2018 were invited to participate in the research. The student cohort during this timeframe totalled 70 at Adelaide and 102 at UniSA. The relevant ethics 54 Freeman and Brett (n 15) p.10. committees from both universities approved the research 55 and students were invited to participate by way of group emails that attached a participant information sheet and consent forms.
As Matthew and Margaret are involved in teaching and assessing the CLE courses while conducting research on their students, research design explicitly facilitated students being able to participate anonymously. The survey did not ask students to provide any identifying details and it is impossible to individualise any of the data received from survey-monkey software. Likewise, the focus group sessions were facilitated and conducted by third party staff members at our respective universities. 56 Transcripts of these focus group sessions were created by using a zoom recorder that enables uploading and conversion of recorded conversations to text. Matthew and Margaret each received de-identified text transcriptions of the focus group sessions.
Protecting students' confidentiality helped to ensure candid student response and voluntary participation.

IV Discussion and analysis of student response
Matthew's student cohort yielded 19 responses to the survey-monkey questionnaire and 3 students participated in the follow up focus session. 57 The anonymity of the data 55 Human Research Ethics Committee at the UniSA and Human Research Ethics Committee at the Adelaide. 56 Jane Knowler conducted the focus group session for Matthew at UniSA and Lecturer Kellie Toole conducted Margaret's focus group at Adelaide. 57 The first email to students was sent by Kelly Ladyman an employee of the UniSA, and it yielded a low number of student responses. Matthew sought and obtained an amendment to his ethics application that permitted him to personally email students inviting them to participate in the research, which improved the response to 18.5%.
precludes comparison of student perception between Matthew's two courses. For Margaret, 48 students completed the survey-monkey questionnaire and 7 students participated in one follow up focus session. Response rates to the survey were variable, with about 2/3 of Adelaide students participating, a smaller proportion of UniSA students. Although participation in focus groups was low it provided value in terms of more detailed insights from students.
This part sets out an analysis of the student response to the survey-monkey questionnaire together with their discussions in the focus group sessions. These follow-up sessions provided students with an opportunity to have a more expansive discussion about their experiences with blogging and journaling in our courses.
Student response to the questionnaire -which is divided into parts A, B, C and Dgenerate a mix of quantitative and qualitative data. Our analysis first summarises the quantitative data to provide a general understanding of student perceptions and preferences with respect to reflective writing in blogging and journaling. This is followed by discussion of the qualitative data where we highlight the key themes in students' comments. The focus group session data underpins and adds depth to this thematic discussion.

(a) Questionnaire: Quantitative Data
In Parts A and B of the questionnaire, which focused on blogging and journaling respectively, student response to both styles of reflective writing were positive. About 90% of UniSA and 80% of Adelaide students strongly agreed or agreed that blogging helped them see issues from different perspectives and to focus deeply on topics, challenges and ideas. 58 Likewise, almost 70% of UniSA and 85% of Adelaide students strongly agreed or agreed that making and receiving comments in their blogs helped them to appreciate the value of feedback. 59 About 90% of both UniSA and Adelaide students strongly agreed or agreed that reading and receiving comments from peers and receiving feedback from the marker helped them to prepare better blog entries in the following weeks. 60 All students considered that their blogs were treated respectfully. 61 UniSA and Adelaide students also viewed journaling as a valuable tool for learning.
Over 75% of students indicated that journaling helped them to organise their thoughts, apply theory to practice, and improve their problem-solving skills. 62 Almost 95% of students agreed that journaling assisted with performance improvement, developing self-awareness and seeing other perspectives. 63  Adelaide and UniSA students' willingness to share reflected topics with peers.
Students appear to frankly acknowledge this as a factor in blogging, with some apparently not concerned, and others more so. Without further investigation, we conclude that there is a lost benefit in blogging arising from the reluctance of some students to fully embrace self-revelation. This may relate to anonymity but may also have deeper causes. Margaret has noted that student blogs are typically self-reflective and commenting on personal experience with clients, but journals often go into revelatory and detailed discussions of relationships with supervisors and other students that students clearly do not want to disclose outside of the student/marker relationship. 69 The assessment question about preferencing a single submission worth more or multiple smaller submissions of equal value indicate preference for multiple smaller submissions for both UniSA and Adelaide students. While this question did not explicitly ask students to compare their experiences with blogging and journaling, it probably further highlights student desire for feedback on their reflective writing. As discussed above, our experience is that students seek assurance with their reflective

(i) Marker Feedback
Almost all of the Adelaide and UniSA students who completed the questionnaire, and also those who participated in the focus group sessions, provided comments about marker feedback.
On the pragmatic level of being assessed, students commented that feedback helped them understand "what the marker wanted to see", "what areas I needed to improve 73 We followed a similar process to that described in Hess, G.F. (2014) 'Qualitative Research on Legal Education: Studying Outstanding Law Teachers' 51(4) Alberta Law Review 925, pp.934-7. We did not code our data using computer software because our data was not so voluminous as to require this technology.
on", "where to expand", "how to approach writing" and to confirm "whether I was on the right track or not." 74 Important characteristics of marker feedback for students included it being "constructive", "immediate", "detailed and personal … rather than generic." 75 There is nothing particularly novel or ground-breaking with this data.
Thoughtful feedback in CLE is viewed as an integral pedagogical tool that enhances student learning and promotes reflective practice. 76 Summative assessment increases student attention and motivation for graded work. 77 Additionally, formal criterionbased student evaluation provides structure for feedback; such structure is beneficial for students because it gives clarity on the requisite skills to master and the parameters of evaluation. 78 However, from our analysis of the qualitative data about marker feedback, we note two important issues with promoting reflective practice and writing. First, students at both universities commented on the perceived value of personalised questions the marker posed on their blogs (and the journals too for Adelaide blogging makes caring, authentic feedback from the marker an even greater imperative. In contrast to the proponents who see benefit in using feedback as a tool for graded student evaluation, 81 critics point to this process as being 'more judgmental, and suggest[ive] [of] a power dynamic that is inconsistent with selfreflection clinics encourage'. 82 It is argued that a teacher's grading is unnecessary for expressing 'encouragement or concern' and it is a 'simplistic mechanism … attractive to teachers precisely because it is unspecific and impersonal.' 83 While these concerns about grading were not borne out in students perceptions of marker's feedback to students posts (which were detailed personal and specific), the authenticity of the feedback from other students who were subject to grading in their response was questioned by students at Adelaide.

(ii) Blending Summative and Formative Assessment with Peer Feedback
At Adelaide, there were mixed responses concerning the authenticity of the graded blogs. One student in the focus group thought having peer blog responses marked meant that, 'naturally they had thought about it and it contained value'. However, others disagreed and suggested that peer responses were not genuine because they were designed to maximise grades. These concerns were expressed by a number of students and encapsulated in the following comments: 81 Hyams (n 2); Barry (n 78); Withey (n 79 thus produce better quality reflective writing that met marking criteria. Moreover, it appears that students on our courses were able to utilise both styles of feedback to enhance reflective practice: evaluation (being able to compare and comment on their peers' blogs) and also valuation (considering the markers' grade, comments and assessment criteria).
One final issue that we consider beneficial using blogs and journals and blending formative and summative assessment for these tasks is that it makes them more accessible and achievable. Many of our law students have not engaged with personal or reflective writing in their prior study. Our subjects place high assessment values to reflective writing (45% at UniSA and 35% at Adelaide). It is important that students are equipped to make as good an effort at reflective writing as they can at more typical academic assessment tasks. Both of our courses focus closely on how to "be reflective" providing guided readings, exercises in class, and in class discussions and practice exercises in reflection. This range of inputs in blogging and journaling support students to be able to perform well in reflective writing as well as gaining the learning and insight that we want them to develop as part of their ongoing reflective practice.

(iii) Sharing Reflective Writing with Peers and Being Part of a Community
Another impact blogging has on students' reflective writing, which is also noted in the feedback discussion above, was the sense of having personal feelings validated and being part of a community. At UniSA, students in the focus group were in agreement that:

(v) Sharing Personal Thought with Peers and the Impact on Reflective Writing
Reflective practice and writing can be seen as deeply personal activities, which involve intimate interrogation of personal thought and reaction to experience. 91 We therefore were keen to find out what students thought about sharing their reflective writing with peers through blogging. With respect to whether confidentiality changes our students' approach to reflective writing, 92 our data indicates that Adelaide students appear to be generally less concerned than UniSA students about sharing their reflective writing with their peers. As mentioned above, approximately 70% of UniSA and 50% of Adelaide students indicated that confidentiality does change their approach to reflective writing. As to why confidentiality changes their approach, 93 UniSA and Adelaide students can be categorised into three groupings: first, students who were not prepared to share deep, personal reflection with peers; second, students who shared the sentiment of the first group, but changed when students felt safe to share with peers; and, third students who felt comfortable and liked sharing reflective thought with peers.
The first group, who were simply not prepared to explore or discuss some matters that would be read by their peers, expressed aversion towards being reflective in their blogging. At UniSA, these students said with blogging they felt "inhibited", "could

Margaret was great at making students feel comfortable and open.'
It would be useful to glean a deeper understanding of this category of student and the reasons why students do not feel comfortable with engaging in reflection with their peers. Only one student at UniSA elaborated on why he or she did not feel comfortable blogging -this student states: 'As a student who does struggle with ... writing and has an access plan to reflect I found it extremely daunting knowing that my writing would be published for the entire cohort to see. Whilst I do believe that there are many benefits to reflective writing I think the potential for the blogging to be edited slightly even if it is just the students names removed from the blog entries would have a big impact on the students willingness to participate…' The second group of students said that they were fearful and not prepared to "openup" until they knew that it was safe to do so. At both universities there were variations of this type of comment: 'I was terrified that other students would be able to read about my feelings, and innermost thoughts -because they were not anonymous. This is why I think I refrained from truly getting to the heart of reflection in my first blog post... I was grateful that every student I spoke to was respectful about the posts.' The third group of students thought that sharing reflective writing with peers was a positive experience from the outset. In this group, students commented that peer sharing encouraged them to "put extra into it" and that it appealed to their "competitive nature". In the UniSA focus group session, one student stated that,

'…the public nature of it forced me to properly think about reflective writing from the beginning of the semester. Whereas if it was just left at the very end, and I didn't have to write something so that I wouldn't be embarrassed in a sense, my last piece [the reflective report] would have been terrible.'
This preliminary data shows that blogging shared with peers has the potential to promote effective engagement with reflective practice and writing. Matthew and Margaret do not have a firm view about whether reflective writing and blogging should be confidential or otherwise anonymised. Moreover, we are of the view that anonymous blogging is likely to generate a different set of concerns and hesitation amongst a student cohort. 94 On our data and teaching experience, the key is to ensure that students feel safe to share their feelings and to harness law student predilection 94 Adelaide recently accessed and used software that concealed student names in blogging in subsequent semesters. That experience is subject to a current survey seeking to establish the value that students place on anonymity in this context. for competitiveness in a positive manner. 95 Of course, this will not always be straightforward in a law classroom where there are a range of learning styles.

Practice When Integrating Blogs and Journals
One of Matthew and Margaret's aims in introducing blogging in addition to journaling in their clinical courses is to better inculcate reflective practice both in and outside the classroom. A reflective law student enters the legal profession as a selfdirected learner with increased self-awareness, 96 emotional intelligence, 97  looking personal analysis, which may generate feelings of discomfort and vulnerability. 101 When students are required to engage in this process in writing as part of assessable work it is traditionally achieved through explicit guarantees of privacy in submission. Blogging does not on its face fit within that deeply personally reflective framework for a number of reasons, most stemming from the lack of privacy.
Our research suggests that the anxieties of some of the student cohort may have diverse impacts on the authenticity, honesty, accuracy, and openness of blogging.
There is a perception that people around the millennial generation are more "carefree" and less concerned with privacy. This arises from the often self-revealing behaviour of this generation online. 102 Our study suggests that levels of comfort with personal self-revelation in a social media environment does not extend into the educational or professional arena, and that students are very mindful of the manner in which they reveal personal observations and thoughts, and relate experiences in this more formal context.
Conversely, the values of community and peer connection that flow from blogging may contribute to the development of perspective, flexibility and collaboration skills.
Blogging appears to introduce a collective experience to reflection and reflective practice for students, which cannot be replicated in journaling. With blogging, students valued sharing experiences as a means of normalising both feelings and 101 Hess (n 33) p.146; Ogilvy (n 8) p.91. 102 Stejin, Schouten and Vedder (n 42) p.3. challenges; students recognised that different perspectives were prompted by the blogging exchange; they found that peer feedback helped them to learn and reflect more deeply, and they felt that blogging helped create a sense of community and connection within the cohort.
Matthew and Margaret are of the view the blogging and journaling are in a sense complimentary. Irrespective of student preference for blogging or journaling, our data indicates blogging helps students recognise other perspectives and also fosters a greater understanding of their individual experience. These are vital aspects of the reflective process and are important ingredients for a rich introspection or selfreflection -which does not necessarily need to be made public. Further to this, it may be the aspects of reflection that blogging promote positively feed into journaling where privacy is protected. To this end, we suggest that using blogging as an introductory assessment tool for reflection may lead to deeper overall learning outcomes for students. However, neither process occurs naturally or intuitively. 103 If anything our experience has shown that what we ask students to do, how we equip them to engage in the process, and the stage at which processes are used, is integrally linked to their successful engagement with the process. This conforms with Beveridge's view that effective reflection requires a combination of factors -the trustworthiness of the reader (be that teacher or students); clear expectations, and effective feedback. 104 To conclude, blogging and journaling can be seen to have slightly different roles. As our experiment has unfolded, we have discovered that blogging has a tripart purpose within the overall reflective process in CLE. First, it helps to create a learning community in which students can connect to each other both personally and by comparing experiences. This supports wellbeing as well as the development of perspective. 105 Second, it creates a pool of material that can be woven into the teaching strategy -bringing to light experiences, observations, common and diverse, that connect theory to practice in the classroom. Finally, it introduces students to the idea of critical reflective learning, which then takes on greater depth in subsequent journaling/ dialogue with their teacher.
104 Beveridge (n 49) p.64. 105 Field, Duffy and Huggins (n 85) p.252. Identify maintaining perspective as one of the key elements of wellbeing in law school.

Online Post # 1
In 300 words please do the following:-

Object of the reflection
The focus of the online post does not address the question(s).
Online post topic(s) are confused, and very little of the writing clearly supports or flows from the topic(s) of reflection.
Overall, the answer to the online post question is not coherent.
The focus of the online post partly addresses the question(s).
Online post topic(s) are mostly defined, and some of the writing supports or flows from the topic(s) of reflection.
Overall, the answer to the online post question is somewhat clear.
The focus of the online post mostly addresses the question(s).
Online post topic(s) are defined, and most of the writing supports the topic(s) of reflection.
Overall, the answer to the online post question is mostly clear.
The focus of the online post clearly addresses the question(s).
Online post topic(s) are well-defined, and all of the writing supports the topic(s) of reflection.
Overall, the answer to the online post question is clear.
The focus of the online post addresses all of the question(s) in an articulate and sophisticated manner.
Online post topic(s) are well-defined, and all of the writing clearly supports all of the topic(s) of reflection.
Overall, the answer to the online post question is clear and concise.

Critical perspectivetaking in the reflection
The online post is too descriptive and the topic(s) of reflection only consider the writer's perspective in an uncritical manner.
The online post is too descriptive, and the topic(s) of reflection partly consider the writer's perspective in a critical manner.
When needed some perspectives are supported by evidence, but it is done in a superficial manner.
The online post has a partial balance of description, interpretation and evaluation, and the topic(s) of reflection mostly consider the writer's perspective in a critical manner.
When needed some perspectives are supported by appropriate evidence (for example, from e-readings, seminar discussions, and additional research).
The online post has a good balance of description, interpretation and evaluation, and the topic(s) of reflection consider the writer's perspective in a critical manner.
When needed most perspectives are supported by appropriate evidence (for example, from e-readings, seminar discussions, and additional research).
The online post has a complete balance of description, interpretation and evaluation, and the topic(s) of reflection consider the writer's perspective in a critical manner.
When needed all perspectives are supported by appropriate evidence (for example, from ereadings, seminar discussions, and additional research).

Personal engagement in the reflection
The online post shows no introspection about the student's experience and reaction.
The online post shows some introspection about the student's experience and reaction.
The online post shows introspection about the student's experience and reaction.
The online post shows introspection and demonstrates selfawareness about the student's experience and reaction.
The online post shows deep introspection and keen selfawareness about the student's experience and reaction.

Writing mechanics
The online post is poorly organised, has multiple errors in grammar, and requires extensive editing to produce clarity and concision.
The online post is somewhat organised, has some errors in grammar, and requires some editing to improve clarity and concision.
The online post is organised, has negligible errors in grammar, and requires minor editing to improve clarity and concision.
The online post is organised and paints a vivid picture. It may have a negligible error in grammar, but editing to improve clarity and concision is not required.
The online post is organised, flows well and paints a vivid picture. It has no errors in grammar. Editing to improve clarity and concision is not required.
Fail Pass Credit Distinction High Distinction

Object of the reflection
The focus in the reflective report does not properly address the question(s) in Parts I and II.
The topics in the reflective report are confused, and there is inadequate detail to explain the relevance of the reflection to the reader.
Overall, the reflective report topic setup is cursory and lacks specific contextual detail in response to the Part I and II questions.
The focus in the reflective report partly addresses the questions in Parts I and II.
The topics in the reflective report are mostly defined, and there is adequate background information to explain the relevance of the reflection to the reader.
Overall, the reflective report topic setup is sufficient but it lacks specific contextual detail in some of the response to the Part I and II questions.
The focus in the reflective report mostly addresses the questions in Parts I and II.
The topics in the reflective report are defined and there is detailed background information to explain the relevance of most of the reflection to the reader.
Overall, the reflective report topic setup is clear and there is specific contextual detail in response to most of the questions to the Part I and II questions.
The focus in the reflective report addresses all of the questions in Parts I and II.
The topics in the reflective report are well-defined and there is detailed background information to explain the relevance of all of the reflection to the reader.
Overall, the reflective report topic setup is very clear and there is specific contextual detail in response to all of the Part I and II questions.
The focus in the reflective report addresses all of the questions in Parts I and II in an articulate and sophisticated manner.
The topics in the reflective report are well-defined and there is detailed background information to explain the relevance of all of the reflection to the reader.
Overall, the reflective report topic setup is faultless and there is specific contextual detail in response to all of the Part I and II questions.

Perspectivetaking in the reflection
The reflective report is too descriptive and the topics of reflection only consider the writer's perspective in an uncritical manner.
The reflective report is too descriptive, and the topics of reflection partly consider the writer's perspective in a critical manner.
Some of the reflective report addresses multiple perspectives, but it fails to identify and examine the perspective of one or more important actors in the topics of reflection.
Perspectives are supported by evidence, but it is done in a superficial manner.
The reflective report has a balance of description, interpretation and evaluation, and the topics of reflection mostly consider the writer's perspective in a critical manner.
The reflective report addresses multiple perspectives and all of the important actors in the topics of reflection are identified and examined.
Most perspectives are supported by appropriate evidence (for example, from ereadings, seminar discussions, online posts, and additional research).
The reflective report has a balance of description, interpretation and evaluation, and the topics of reflection consider the writer's perspective in a critical manner.
The reflective report addresses multiple perspectives and all of the important actors in the topics of reflection are identified and examined in a sophisticated manner.
All perspectives are supported by appropriate evidence (for example, from e-readings, seminar discussions, online posts and additional research).
The reflective report has a balance of description, interpretation and evaluation, and the topics of reflection consider the writer's perspective in a critical manner.
The reflective report addresses multiple perspectives and all of the important actors in the topics of reflection are identified and examined in a sophisticated manner.
All perspectives are supported by appropriate evidence in a sophisticated manner (for example, from e-readings, seminar discussions, online posts and additional research).

Personal engagement in the reflection
The reflective report shows minimal introspection.
The evaluation of the writer's reaction to his or her experience is missing or incoherent.
The reflective report shows some introspection about the student's experience and reaction.
There is minimal evaluation of the writer's strengths and weaknesses in relation to the topics of reflection.
The reflective report shows introspection about the student's experience and reaction.
There is some evaluation of the writer's strengths and weaknesses in relation to the topics of reflection.
The reflective report shows deep, genuine introspection about the student's experience and reaction.
There is evaluation of the writer's strengths and weaknesses in relation to the topics of reflection. . The writer's evaluation of strengths and weakness highlights what he/she needs to learn going forward is articulated.
The reflective report shows deep, genuine introspection about the student's experience and reaction.
There is keen selfawareness and a sophisticated evaluation of the writer's strengths and weaknesses in relation to the topics of reflection.
The writer's evaluation of strengths and weakness highlights what he/she needs to learn is clearly articulated.

Lessons learned from reflection
The reflective report is descriptive and there are not any identifying takeaways or learning that is personal to the writer.
The reflective report considers lessons learned from reflection, and partly addresses how this learning will be used in the future.
The lessons learned are supported by evidence, but it is done in a superficial manner.
The reflective report considers lessons learned from reflection and mostly addresses how this learning will be used in the future.
The lessons learned are supported by appropriate evidence (for example, from ereadings, seminar discussions, online posts and additional research).
The reflective report considers lessons learned from reflection and clearly addresses how this learning will be used in the future.
The lessons learned are supported by appropriate evidence (for example, from e-readings, seminar discussions, online posts and additional research).
The reflective report considers lessons learned from reflection and clearly addresses how this learning will be used in the future in a sophisticated manner.
The lessons learned are supported by appropriate evidence in sophisticated manner (for example, from e-readings, seminar discussions, online posts and additional research).

Writing mechanics
The reflective report is poorly organised, has multiple errors in grammar, and requires extensive editing to produce clarity and concision.
The reflective report is somewhat organised, has some errors in grammar, and requires some editing to improve clarity and concision.
AGLC compliant in some areas, but there are errors.
The reflective report is organised, has negligible errors in grammar, and requires minor editing to improve clarity and concision.
AGLC compliant save and except for multiple minor errors.
The reflective report is organised and paints a vivid picture. It may have a negligible error in grammar, but editing to improve clarity and concision is not required.
AGLC compliant save and except for a minor error.
The reflective report is organised, flows well and paints a vivid picture. It has no errors in grammar. Editing to improve clarity and concision is not required.

APPENDIX B
Adelaide University Guidelines for Blogging and Journaling:

BLOGS BLOG RESPONSES
A good blog outlines the experience event or issue with just enough detail to give it context, frames the issue you want to discuss, and then discusses with reference to theory and your own experience.
 Blog # 1 -Share your experience/thoughts of your first day on placement. How did you feel on the first day? Relate your feelings to how a client might feel? What specific strategies will you use to help the client through the process.
 Blog # 2 -What do you need advice on? There are 20 smart students in this course. Identify one or more things that you would like some advice/support. Frame your questions with reference to theory and to your preliminary thoughts on the issue. A good blog response generally covers the following: • Show that you have heard what the blogger saysnot be repeating it but by summarising what was said in context (much as you would provide reframed feedback to a client in an interview) • Engage with the blog by adding your own thoughts experiences or suggestions to the discussion • Build on the conversation by adding your own understanding from further research, or by asking carefully thought out questions RESEARCH does not just mean law journals! It means looking for resources that help explain interpret or build understanding and experience -it is completely acceptable to search online for whatever information you find that is helpful it does not have to be a scholarly resource.
STYLE -use your own authentic voice, speak in the first person, tell a story rather than a de personalised academic discussion. Try to engage in a conversation with each other.

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Journal # 1 Journal # 2 I will read and comment on your journal entry within the nominated time, and ask you further questions, which you should answer by the nominated date.
I will read and respond to your journal entry within the nominated time, and you may respond within the further time nominated.

Blogs and journal posts -Marking Rubric
Pass (2)