Online law school faculty perceptions of journaling as professional development: Influences, barriers and pitfalls

The training and retention of faculty at online higher education institutions can be particularly challenging due to distance caused by geographic dispersement of faculty. Reflective journaling holds promise for helping online faculty improve their teaching using critical self-reflection. Further, because the study involves law faculty and reflective judgment is a critical skill for practicing lawyers, faculty must be able to model reflection for their students. A number of faculty involved in the study are also practicing lawyers who face challenges of time management and stress. Journaling can help address those challenges. The study confirmed that faculty view journaling as beneficial for the improvement of teaching among other benefits. The benefit of facilitating scholarship perceived by some faculty will be particularly attractive to some faculty members. Major factors influencing attitudes about journaling were communications from the school and researcher, concerns about effectiveness and time. The major barrier to reflective journaling is time. The concern about training may be addressed with communication and training and a demonstration that journaling can actually be effective to help alleviate concerns about time, rather than exacerbating the problem.