How-to

Read and respond to reflections

Alva Courses collects every Reflection Box entry for a course on one Reflections screen. Read each student's writing in full, filter by lesson, student or feedback status, and write a response the student sees beside their own words in the course player.

Before you start

The course needs at least one lesson with a Reflection Box, and at least one student who has written in it. To add the block, see add a reflection box. The Reflections screen is part of every course, so there is nothing to switch on.

Open the Reflections screen

Open the course in Alva Courses, then open the Actions menu at the top of the course page and choose Reflections. When entries are waiting for you, the menu item carries the count, such as Reflections (3), and the screen opens with "Still waiting for your response: 3".

Respond to a reflection

1. Open Alva Courses, choose Courses, and open the course.
2. Open the Actions menu and choose Reflections.
3. Set the Feedback status filter to Needs feedback to list only the entries waiting for you.
4. Select a row to open the student's reflection in full.
5. Write your reply in the Your response box.
6. Select Save response.

The window closes once the response is saved, and the row's badge changes from Needs feedback to Responded. A response can be up to 10,000 characters, and your line breaks are kept.

What the list shows

The list has one row per student per Reflection Box, 25 rows to a page. Each row shows the Student name and email, the Lesson, the Prompt (the Reflection Box title), the first 300 characters of the Reflection, a Feedback badge and the Updated date.

Updated is the last time the student edited their entry, shown in your store's time zone. Saving a response does not change it. An open entry shows the same date as "Last edited by the student on", and "You responded on" once you have replied.

Find a reflection

The search box matches student name, email and lesson name; it does not search inside the reflection text. Three filters narrow the list further. Lesson offers only lessons that contain a Reflection Box, Student offers only students who have written in this course, and Feedback status limits the list to Needs feedback. Each active filter shows a removable chip, and Clear all resets the list.

Edit or withdraw a response

Open the entry again to change your reply, then select Save response. The date the student sees moves to the new save. To withdraw a response, clear the Your response box and save. The entry returns to Needs feedback, and the response is removed from the student's lesson.

What students see

In the storefront course player, your response appears below the student's own writing in a panel headed Feedback from and your name, with the date you sent it. The name is the Display Name under Teacher Identity on the course's Comments tab, or your store name when that is blank. The prompt also gains an Instructor feedback badge.

Until you reply, a student who has written something sees "Waiting for feedback from your instructor." A new or edited response appears the next time the student opens that lesson. Only the student who wrote the entry ever sees your response.

One student's reflections across courses

To see everything one student has written, open Members, select the student, and expand the Reflections card. It lists their 20 most recent entries across all your courses, each with its Feedback status. Select a course name to open that course's Reflections screen and reply there.

Reflections and course evaluation

A reflection response answers one entry in one lesson. If the course uses evaluation, the same reflections also appear under Current reflections when you grade a submission. The Evaluation feedback you write there is a separate, single note on the whole submission.

See also

Set up the prompt in add a reflection box, grade whole submissions in review and grade coursework, or check a student's progress in view members and progress.

Last updated 2026-10-08