Reflection in asynchronous online postsecondary courses: a reflective review of the literature

Reflection is a term which appears often in the discourse of online postsecondary education, where it is typically offered as the key to ‘deep learning’. However, although researchers agree that reflection is a vital aspect of online learning, and even that new technologies can promote reflection, there is a surprising lack of clarity about what reflection actually means in e-learning contexts. This paper reports on a survey of the literature on reflection in online postsecondary learning for the years 2000–2015. Reading, rereading and reflecting on the 46 articles, papers and theses that met the search criteria, the author found that studies on the topic tend to be based on diverse, vague and questionable understandings about what reflection entails. A major implication is that, lacking a clear understanding of what is being studied, research can only yield inconclusive findings about the strategies that prompt and support students’ reflection in online postsecondary education.