Reflective practice is a key component of health professions education, supporting critical thinking, professional identity development, and the integration of theory into teaching practice. At the Postgraduate Diploma in Health Professions Education at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, students traditionally submitted weekly reflective journals via Moodle’s Journal tool. While effective for small cohorts, this approach became increasingly unsustainable as enrolments doubled, and educators faced challenges navigating lengthy submissions, monitoring word counts, and ensuring referencing compliance.

To address these issues, we designed a scalable, human-centred reflective journalling system using Moodle’s Database activity. Each entry included structured fields for title, reflection, and references, with visible word counts. Cohorts were divided into educator-led learning sections, fostering relational engagement. Two viewing modes, list and single-entry, enabled efficient formative review while maintaining depth of feedback. Students could iteratively revise entries before final submission, supporting participatory reflection and learner agency. Complementary tools, including visual progress tracking and bespoke discussion boards, enhanced engagement and accessibility.

As generative AI becomes increasingly embedded in education, reflective activities face new challenges. Even highly personal reflections risk being replaced with AI-generated text, potentially undermining authenticity and professional growth. In response, we are exploring interventions such as AI declaration forms and multimodal reflective formats, including database-supported podcasts, to maintain ethical and meaningful engagement while scaling reflective practice.

This practitioner paper highlights a work-in-progress approach to balancing scale, human connection, and technological affordances in digital learning. It situates reflective journalling as a relational, participatory, and ethically-informed activity, designed with students and educators in mind. By sharing our design decisions, successes, and ongoing challenges, we aim to contribute to discussions about who digital learning technologies serve, how they shape engagement, and how we can preserve authentic professional reflection in the era of AI.