Journals

Journals are a self-reflective "diary" of course experiences and learning that can be shared by a student and the instructor. Only the student and the instructor are able to add comments to journal entries unless the journal(s) are  made public by the instructor so all enrolled users may read entries made to the journal topic but cannot comment on them. Group Journals can be accessed by the group members and the instructor.
Journals entries can consist of: text, images, links, multimedia and attachments posted by individual student and journal comments, remarks or responses to a journal entry made by the student(s) or the instructor.

Creating Journals

You create journals from either the Journals option under Control Panel, Course Tools, or directly from a menu item area e.g., Assignments. This example shows you how to create a journal in the content area, Assignments.

1. Select “Add Interactive Tool” from the option button near the top of the page. Scroll and click on “Journal”
2. Select Create New Journal; type a name for the journal and any instructions or directions to the student.
   • Make journal available to students (yes/no); set date/time restrictions (optional)
   • Index entries (organize entries) either by Month or Week
   • Select options to allow the student to edit and delete entries
   • If the journal is to be viewed by other students select  “Permit Course Users to View Journal”
   • Select grading options, if the journal is to be graded type in the point value
3. Click Submit. The journal that you created is now highlighted under “Link to Journal”
4. Click Next. Type in any text or description if desired; select additional options
5. Click Submit.

All journals created under a content area are viewable from Control Panel, Course Tools, and Journals.

Alternately, you can also set up a journal from this area by selecting Create Journal then follow the same procedures listed under Step 2 then “link” the journal to a content area by selecting the content area, “Add Interactive Tool”; “Journal”. Select “Link to Journal” radio button; highlight (click) the name of the journal and click Submit continue on the next screen to select options and click Submit to deploy.

Printable PDF Instructions

Grading Journals

Grades can be entered for individual student journals or group journals from within the Journal area without having to navigate to the Grade Center. All grade entries made within the Journal area are automatically added to the Grade Center; however,  you can enter them in the Grade Center directly).

Select (click) on the Journal Name (e.g., Journal 1; Journal 2); to the right you will see green exclamation icons that indicate the entries to be graded.

Selecting the student's name will take you to the entry that needs grading.  After reading the entry, select “Edit Grade” to manually enter a grade as well as enter any Feedback to the student; add Grading Notes (grading notes are NOT viewable to the student); or comment directly in the journal entry by selecting the Comment button in the text area.

Select Save Grade to record.

If there are more journals to grade, click the arrows to the right of More Journals to move through the journal entries.

Printable PDF Instructions