Educators are continually seeking out engaging learning tools to reach students across all learning styles. Giving unique learners opportunities to engage with the course materials and prove their learning for appropriate assessment. Particularly with the learning loss and shift in how students were acquiring knowledge during the COVID 19 pandemic, this task has become even more critical. Students are entering the classroom at varying knowledge levels with a wide-range of previous educational experiences and prior knowledge.

Reflection exercises, both oral and written, have long been used as tools for assessment to help students think more critically about their learning and to express those experiences in a formal or informal way. For this study, written reflections are used to provide the tools for educators to evaluate student use of appropriate terminology through either guided prompts or freewriting exercises.

This mixed methods study will analyze data from hundreds of student’s written reflections submitted as part of lab-based assignments to determine if this form of assessment is appropriate for students of all learning styles. Two types of text analysis software, ChatGPT and LIWC, will be used to analyze the data. A variety of areas will be explored including confidence in writing, tone, authenticity, and analytical thinking in order to determine if learners across a variety of learning styles can effectively prove their knowledge with guided written reflections.

Keywords: Written reflection, assessment, learning styles.