Self-reflection is a great method for helping learners make progress towards goals or develop skills. But sometimes you have the option to also have face-to-face mentoring type conversations. Recording some part of these conversations is useful to refer back to and helps integrate learning within the online course with face-to-face learning.
Example
Below is one way you could set up recording a mentor conversation. Three parts - forethought, afterthought and action-thought.
There's no reason you have to get learners to write these responses, you could choose to set up the tasks as audio or video if you think your learners would prefer that way of responding.
Benefits
Having some sort of a record of mentor discussions within the online course allows...
A lasting artifact of learning that learners (and you) can look back at whenever you want. (also useful for revision)
A slightly more structured approach to discussions as the instructions are built into the tasks with some accountability.
A starting point for the next discussion.
Variations
Variations really depend on the nature of the conversations. Think about which parts in particular would be valuable for your learner to record. Favoured approaches we've found tend to have questions falling into these areas.
Current situation
What is going on that makes this an issue for you?
When does this happen? How often does this happen? Be as specific as possible.
Who is involved? What is their perception of the situation?
Which parts of this are within your power to change and which aren’t?
What - if anything - have you already done to address the situation? What has been the effect of what you have done so far?
What assumptions are you making?
Goal/change desired
How would you like things to be different? What are you trying to achieve?
Imagine that you have successfully addressed your issue. What does success look like? Describe what you would be doing, seeing, feeling, hearing…
What difference would that make? What difference would that make?
What do you really, really want?
How will that be of value to you? To anyone else?
What stops you from having that right now?
Options
What options do you have to get that result? Don’t worry about whether they are realistic at this stage.
What approaches/actions have you thought about already? Seen used? Used yourself, in other situations?
What are the benefits and pitfalls of these options? If you had a really wise friend, what would they do in your shoes?
What is a short term solution? A long term solution?
What resources are available to you?
Actions
From your options, which options will you actually pursue?
What are the next steps? What will you need to do/learn/practice?
What might get in the way? Is there a way of overcoming that obstacle?
What support do you need? How and when will you enlist that support?
What will you commit to doing? By when? How will you do this?
One approach for this style might be to ask learners to reflect on these stages before the session then ask them to record their plan after the session. Recording mentoring sessions also goes hand in hand with setting goals and self-reflection tasks.