How to Create a Reflective Learning Dairy for Lectures, Online Learning, Training Course, and Workshop Notes

During my career journey, I have got the opportunity to attend numerous courses and training sessions. Some of these are in a classroom setting while others are online.

In fact, I came across the concept of keeping a learning log while I was pursuing a Leadership Course from the UK based FutureLearn, an online learning platform on which I have done several Business Management Courses.

When you attend training, it very useful to keep a learning log to help you record the most important concepts that will be useful for both your work and professional growth.

At the same time, you would not want to get so distracted from the training session because you have to write constantly.

A smart simple solution is to use a learning log which can be a notebook, a document on your computer, tablet or mobile phone. In modern times there are several apps that are useful for short notes. One of these apps that caught my attention is Google Keep.

This app enables you to Quickly capture what’s on your mind and get a reminder later at the right place or time. You can also speak a voice memo on the go and have it automatically transcribed.

Since its launch in 2013, Google Keep has been available on the web supported by Android and iOS mobile operating systems.

It offers a variety of tools for capturing important notes, including text, lists, images, and audio.

There are also some useful Blogging and journaling tools such as Wix Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress which are designed to be updated regularly.

For that reason, they can also act as good places to keep your notes. At some point, you may decide to share your thoughts with the public in the form of a blog article.

Quite a number of other smartphone journaling apps have been developed and already exist in Google Play Store. One of them which you can investigate is  Day One.

Other Note-taking tools and apps like Shrib or EverNote are also very useful tools to use.

There are also a number of free portfolio tools available including PortfolioGen, PathBrite, and FolioSpaces and so many other places where you think keeping a learning log or portfolio could be useful. You may have already had a chance to of using some of the tools that are mentioned.

Importance of Keeping a Learning Dairy/Log

A reflective Learning Diary aims to give you an opportunity to do the following:

Keep a record of the work you undertake in your workplace, placement or part-time job
Note any existing skills you develop, or new skills you learn & important lessons
Identify areas you would like to improve

A learning diary is a personal record of your own learning, something that allows you to record, structure, think about and reflect upon, plan, develop and evidence your own learning.

While putting together, a learning log, you should aim to highlight not just what you have been doing but also what you feel you have been able to take away from the training.

It also helps you with capturing how you feel you might be able to take this forward and put it into practice in your personal and/or work life.

You can use Apps Like Google Keep as your learning diary which can have personal notes – something that gives you a record of your experiences, thoughts, feelings, conclusions, and reflections. Because of its personal nature, there is no right or wrong structure to use when constructing a learning diary.

However, to take a more structured approach to this process, there is a framework you might use:

Sample Learning Dairy

Date.	Activity/What I Read & Why.	What I Learnt from This	How I Have/Will Use This
3rd January 2018	Attended training on Management, Leadership & Supervisory Skills	I’m able to reflect On Actions & Lessons Learned from a training, workshop or networking event	I will start my own learning log as an action plan to record important lessons, events & best practices

You may also find some of these apps also useful to take notes and keep them for future reference and action.

Final Comments

You can use your Learning log to record courses you went on, books you have read, the discussions you have had, the websites you have looked at, and the television programs you have watched.

In any learning journey one of the most important things if to formulate a method you will use in Capturing your thinking.

It is always very critical Before you start your learning journey to consider how you are going to capture your thoughts.

This will help develop them into meaningful actions. You will be able to capture all that is good, useful or interesting about the topic, the questions have arisen and the actions will you take to further develop or apply the lessons learned.

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