assignment design please

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Designing Assignments for Learning

The rapid shift to remote teaching and learning meant that many instructors reimagined their assessment practices. Whether adapting existing assignments or creatively designing new opportunities for their students to learn, instructors focused on helping students make meaning and demonstrate their learning outside of the traditional, face-to-face classroom setting. This resource distills the elements of assignment design that are important to carry forward as we continue to seek better ways of assessing learning and build on our innovative assignment designs.

On this page:

Rethinking traditional tests, quizzes, and exams.

• Examples from the Columbia University Classroom
• Tips for Designing Assignments for Learning

Reflect On Your Assignment Design

Connect with the ctl.

• Resources and References

Cite this resource: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2021). Designing Assignments for Learning. Columbia University. Retrieved [today’s date] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/teaching-with-technology/teaching-online/designing-assignments/

Traditional assessments tend to reveal whether students can recognize, recall, or replicate what was learned out of context, and tend to focus on students providing correct responses (Wiggins, 1990). In contrast, authentic assignments, which are course assessments, engage students in higher order thinking, as they grapple with real or simulated challenges that help them prepare for their professional lives, and draw on the course knowledge learned and the skills acquired to create justifiable answers, performances or products (Wiggins, 1990). An authentic assessment provides opportunities for students to practice, consult resources, learn from feedback, and refine their performances and products accordingly (Wiggins 1990, 1998, 2014). 

Authentic assignments ask students to “do” the subject with an audience in mind and apply their learning in a new situation. Examples of authentic assignments include asking students to: 

• Write for a real audience (e.g., a memo, a policy brief, letter to the editor, a grant proposal, reports, building a website) and/or publication;
• Solve problem sets that have real world application; 
• Design projects that address a real world problem; 
• Engage in a community-partnered research project;
• Create an exhibit, performance, or conference presentation ;
• Compile and reflect on their work through a portfolio/e-portfolio.

Noteworthy elements of authentic designs are that instructors scaffold the assignment, and play an active role in preparing students for the tasks assigned, while students are intentionally asked to reflect on the process and product of their work thus building their metacognitive skills (Herrington and Oliver, 2000; Ashford-Rowe, Herrington and Brown, 2013; Frey, Schmitt, and Allen, 2012). 

It’s worth noting here that authentic assessments can initially be time consuming to design, implement, and grade. They are critiqued for being challenging to use across course contexts and for grading reliability issues (Maclellan, 2004). Despite these challenges, authentic assessments are recognized as beneficial to student learning (Svinicki, 2004) as they are learner-centered (Weimer, 2013), promote academic integrity (McLaughlin, L. and Ricevuto, 2021; Sotiriadou et al., 2019; Schroeder, 2021) and motivate students to learn (Ambrose et al., 2010). The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning is always available to consult with faculty who are considering authentic assessment designs and to discuss challenges and affordances.   

Examples from the Columbia University Classroom 

Columbia instructors have experimented with alternative ways of assessing student learning from oral exams to technology-enhanced assignments. Below are a few examples of authentic assignments in various teaching contexts across Columbia University. 

• E-portfolios: Statia Cook shares her experiences with an ePorfolio assignment in her co-taught Frontiers of Science course (a submission to the Voices of Hybrid and Online Teaching and Learning initiative); CUIMC use of ePortfolios ;
• Case studies: Columbia instructors have engaged their students in authentic ways through case studies drawing on the Case Consortium at Columbia University. Read and watch a faculty spotlight to learn how Professor Mary Ann Price uses the case method to place pre-med students in real-life scenarios;
• Simulations: students at CUIMC engage in simulations to develop their professional skills in The Mary & Michael Jaharis Simulation Center in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Helene Fuld Health Trust Simulation Center in the Columbia School of Nursing; 
• Experiential learning: instructors have drawn on New York City as a learning laboratory such as Barnard’s NYC as Lab webpage which highlights courses that engage students in NYC;
• Design projects that address real world problems: Yevgeniy Yesilevskiy on the Engineering design projects completed using lab kits during remote learning. Watch Dr. Yesilevskiy talk about his teaching and read the Columbia News article . 
• Writing assignments: Lia Marshall and her teaching associate Aparna Balasundaram reflect on their “non-disposable or renewable assignments” to prepare social work students for their professional lives as they write for a real audience; and Hannah Weaver spoke about a sandbox assignment used in her Core Literature Humanities course at the 2021 Celebration of Teaching and Learning Symposium . Watch Dr. Weaver share her experiences.  

​Tips for Designing Assignments for Learning

While designing an effective authentic assignment may seem like a daunting task, the following tips can be used as a starting point. See the Resources section for frameworks and tools that may be useful in this effort.  

Align the assignment with your course learning objectives 

Identify the kind of thinking that is important in your course, the knowledge students will apply, and the skills they will practice using through the assignment. What kind of thinking will students be asked to do for the assignment? What will students learn by completing this assignment? How will the assignment help students achieve the desired course learning outcomes? For more information on course learning objectives, see the CTL’s Course Design Essentials self-paced course and watch the video on Articulating Learning Objectives .  

Identify an authentic meaning-making task

For meaning-making to occur, students need to understand the relevance of the assignment to the course and beyond (Ambrose et al., 2010). To Bean (2011) a “meaning-making” or “meaning-constructing” task has two dimensions: 1) it presents students with an authentic disciplinary problem or asks students to formulate their own problems, both of which engage them in active critical thinking, and 2) the problem is placed in “a context that gives students a role or purpose, a targeted audience, and a genre.” (Bean, 2011: 97-98). 

An authentic task gives students a realistic challenge to grapple with, a role to take on that allows them to “rehearse for the complex ambiguities” of life, provides resources and supports to draw on, and requires students to justify their work and the process they used to inform their solution (Wiggins, 1990). Note that if students find an assignment interesting or relevant, they will see value in completing it. 

Consider the kind of activities in the real world that use the knowledge and skills that are the focus of your course. How is this knowledge and these skills applied to answer real-world questions to solve real-world problems? (Herrington et al., 2010: 22). What do professionals or academics in your discipline do on a regular basis? What does it mean to think like a biologist, statistician, historian, social scientist? How might your assignment ask students to draw on current events, issues, or problems that relate to the course and are of interest to them? How might your assignment tap into student motivation and engage them in the kinds of thinking they can apply to better understand the world around them? (Ambrose et al., 2010). 

Determine the evaluation criteria and create a rubric

To ensure equitable and consistent grading of assignments across students, make transparent the criteria you will use to evaluate student work. The criteria should focus on the knowledge and skills that are central to the assignment. Build on the criteria identified, create a rubric that makes explicit the expectations of deliverables and share this rubric with your students so they can use it as they work on the assignment. For more information on rubrics, see the CTL’s resource Incorporating Rubrics into Your Grading and Feedback Practices , and explore the Association of American Colleges & Universities VALUE Rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education). 

Build in metacognition

Ask students to reflect on what and how they learned from the assignment. Help students uncover personal relevance of the assignment, find intrinsic value in their work, and deepen their motivation by asking them to reflect on their process and their assignment deliverable. Sample prompts might include: what did you learn from this assignment? How might you draw on the knowledge and skills you used on this assignment in the future? See Ambrose et al., 2010 for more strategies that support motivation and the CTL’s resource on Metacognition ). 

Provide students with opportunities to practice

Design your assignment to be a learning experience and prepare students for success on the assignment. If students can reasonably expect to be successful on an assignment when they put in the required effort ,with the support and guidance of the instructor, they are more likely to engage in the behaviors necessary for learning (Ambrose et al., 2010). Ensure student success by actively teaching the knowledge and skills of the course (e.g., how to problem solve, how to write for a particular audience), modeling the desired thinking, and creating learning activities that build up to a graded assignment. Provide opportunities for students to practice using the knowledge and skills they will need for the assignment, whether through low-stakes in-class activities or homework activities that include opportunities to receive and incorporate formative feedback. For more information on providing feedback, see the CTL resource Feedback for Learning . 

Communicate about the assignment 

Share the purpose, task, audience, expectations, and criteria for the assignment. Students may have expectations about assessments and how they will be graded that is informed by their prior experiences completing high-stakes assessments, so be transparent. Tell your students why you are asking them to do this assignment, what skills they will be using, how it aligns with the course learning outcomes, and why it is relevant to their learning and their professional lives (i.e., how practitioners / professionals use the knowledge and skills in your course in real world contexts and for what purposes). Finally, verify that students understand what they need to do to complete the assignment. This can be done by asking students to respond to poll questions about different parts of the assignment, a “scavenger hunt” of the assignment instructions–giving students questions to answer about the assignment and having them work in small groups to answer the questions, or by having students share back what they think is expected of them.

Plan to iterate and to keep the focus on learning 

Draw on multiple sources of data to help make decisions about what changes are needed to the assignment, the assignment instructions, and/or rubric to ensure that it contributes to student learning. Explore assignment performance data. As Deandra Little reminds us: “a really good assignment, which is a really good assessment, also teaches you something or tells the instructor something. As much as it tells you what students are learning, it’s also telling you what they aren’t learning.” ( Teaching in Higher Ed podcast episode 337 ). Assignment bottlenecks–where students get stuck or struggle–can be good indicators that students need further support or opportunities to practice prior to completing an assignment. This awareness can inform teaching decisions. 

Triangulate the performance data by collecting student feedback, and noting your own reflections about what worked well and what did not. Revise the assignment instructions, rubric, and teaching practices accordingly. Consider how you might better align your assignment with your course objectives and/or provide more opportunities for students to practice using the knowledge and skills that they will rely on for the assignment. Additionally, keep in mind societal, disciplinary, and technological changes as you tweak your assignments for future use. 

Now is a great time to reflect on your practices and experiences with assignment design and think critically about your approach. Take a closer look at an existing assignment. Questions to consider include: What is this assignment meant to do? What purpose does it serve? Why do you ask students to do this assignment? How are they prepared to complete the assignment? Does the assignment assess the kind of learning that you really want? What would help students learn from this assignment? 

Using the tips in the previous section: How can the assignment be tweaked to be more authentic and meaningful to students? 

As you plan forward for post-pandemic teaching and reflect on your practices and reimagine your course design, you may find the following CTL resources helpful: Reflecting On Your Experiences with Remote Teaching , Transition to In-Person Teaching , and Course Design Support .

The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is here to help!

For assistance with assignment design, rubric design, or any other teaching and learning need, please request a consultation by emailing [email protected] . 

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework for assignments. The TILT Examples and Resources page ( https://tilthighered.com/tiltexamplesandresources ) includes example assignments from across disciplines, as well as a transparent assignment template and a checklist for designing transparent assignments . Each emphasizes the importance of articulating to students the purpose of the assignment or activity, the what and how of the task, and specifying the criteria that will be used to assess students. 

Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) offers VALUE ADD (Assignment Design and Diagnostic) tools ( https://www.aacu.org/value-add-tools ) to help with the creation of clear and effective assignments that align with the desired learning outcomes and associated VALUE rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education). VALUE ADD encourages instructors to explicitly state assignment information such as the purpose of the assignment, what skills students will be using, how it aligns with course learning outcomes, the assignment type, the audience and context for the assignment, clear evaluation criteria, desired formatting, and expectations for completion whether individual or in a group.

Villarroel et al. (2017) propose a blueprint for building authentic assessments which includes four steps: 1) consider the workplace context, 2) design the authentic assessment; 3) learn and apply standards for judgement; and 4) give feedback. 

References 

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., & DiPietro, M. (2010). Chapter 3: What Factors Motivate Students to Learn? In How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching . Jossey-Bass. 

Ashford-Rowe, K., Herrington, J., and Brown, C. (2013). Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 39(2), 205-222, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.819566 .  

Bean, J.C. (2011). Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . Second Edition. Jossey-Bass. 

Frey, B. B, Schmitt, V. L., and Allen, J. P. (2012). Defining Authentic Classroom Assessment. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. 17(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7275/sxbs-0829  

Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C., and Oliver, R. (2010). A Guide to Authentic e-Learning . Routledge. 

Herrington, J. and Oliver, R. (2000). An instructional design framework for authentic learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 48(3), 23-48. 

Litchfield, B. C. and Dempsey, J. V. (2015). Authentic Assessment of Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 142 (Summer 2015), 65-80. 

Maclellan, E. (2004). How convincing is alternative assessment for use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 29(3), June 2004. DOI: 10.1080/0260293042000188267

McLaughlin, L. and Ricevuto, J. (2021). Assessments in a Virtual Environment: You Won’t Need that Lockdown Browser! Faculty Focus. June 2, 2021. 

Mueller, J. (2005). The Authentic Assessment Toolbox: Enhancing Student Learning through Online Faculty Development . MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 1(1). July 2005. Mueller’s Authentic Assessment Toolbox is available online. 

Schroeder, R. (2021). Vaccinate Against Cheating With Authentic Assessment . Inside Higher Ed. (February 26, 2021).  

Sotiriadou, P., Logan, D., Daly, A., and Guest, R. (2019). The role of authentic assessment to preserve academic integrity and promote skills development and employability. Studies in Higher Education. 45(111), 2132-2148. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1582015    

Stachowiak, B. (Host). (November 25, 2020). Authentic Assignments with Deandra Little. (Episode 337). In Teaching in Higher Ed . https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/authentic-assignments/  

Svinicki, M. D. (2004). Authentic Assessment: Testing in Reality. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 100 (Winter 2004): 23-29. 

Villarroel, V., Bloxham, S, Bruna, D., Bruna, C., and Herrera-Seda, C. (2017). Authentic assessment: creating a blueprint for course design. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 43(5), 840-854. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1412396    

Weimer, M. (2013). Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice . Second Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 

Wiggins, G. (2014). Authenticity in assessment, (re-)defined and explained. Retrieved from https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/authenticity-in-assessment-re-defined-and-explained/

Wiggins, G. (1998). Teaching to the (Authentic) Test. Educational Leadership . April 1989. 41-47. 

Wiggins, Grant (1990). The Case for Authentic Assessment . Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation , 2(2). 

Wondering how AI tools might play a role in your course assignments?

See the CTL’s resource “Considerations for AI Tools in the Classroom.”

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Eberly Center

Teaching excellence & educational innovation, creating assignments.

Here are some general suggestions and questions to consider when creating assignments. There are also many other resources in print and on the web that provide examples of interesting, discipline-specific assignment ideas.

Consider your learning objectives.

What do you want students to learn in your course? What could they do that would show you that they have learned it? To determine assignments that truly serve your course objectives, it is useful to write out your objectives in this form: I want my students to be able to ____. Use active, measurable verbs as you complete that sentence (e.g., compare theories, discuss ramifications, recommend strategies), and your learning objectives will point you towards suitable assignments.

Design assignments that are interesting and challenging.

This is the fun side of assignment design. Consider how to focus students’ thinking in ways that are creative, challenging, and motivating. Think beyond the conventional assignment type! For example, one American historian requires students to write diary entries for a hypothetical Nebraska farmwoman in the 1890s. By specifying that students’ diary entries must demonstrate the breadth of their historical knowledge (e.g., gender, economics, technology, diet, family structure), the instructor gets students to exercise their imaginations while also accomplishing the learning objectives of the course (Walvoord & Anderson, 1989, p. 25).

Double-check alignment.

After creating your assignments, go back to your learning objectives and make sure there is still a good match between what you want students to learn and what you are asking them to do. If you find a mismatch, you will need to adjust either the assignments or the learning objectives. For instance, if your goal is for students to be able to analyze and evaluate texts, but your assignments only ask them to summarize texts, you would need to add an analytical and evaluative dimension to some assignments or rethink your learning objectives.

Name assignments accurately.

Students can be misled by assignments that are named inappropriately. For example, if you want students to analyze a product’s strengths and weaknesses but you call the assignment a “product description,” students may focus all their energies on the descriptive, not the critical, elements of the task. Thus, it is important to ensure that the titles of your assignments communicate their intention accurately to students.

Consider sequencing.

Think about how to order your assignments so that they build skills in a logical sequence. Ideally, assignments that require the most synthesis of skills and knowledge should come later in the semester, preceded by smaller assignments that build these skills incrementally. For example, if an instructor’s final assignment is a research project that requires students to evaluate a technological solution to an environmental problem, earlier assignments should reinforce component skills, including the ability to identify and discuss key environmental issues, apply evaluative criteria, and find appropriate research sources.

Think about scheduling.

Consider your intended assignments in relation to the academic calendar and decide how they can be reasonably spaced throughout the semester, taking into account holidays and key campus events. Consider how long it will take students to complete all parts of the assignment (e.g., planning, library research, reading, coordinating groups, writing, integrating the contributions of team members, developing a presentation), and be sure to allow sufficient time between assignments.

Check feasibility.

Is the workload you have in mind reasonable for your students? Is the grading burden manageable for you? Sometimes there are ways to reduce workload (whether for you or for students) without compromising learning objectives. For example, if a primary objective in assigning a project is for students to identify an interesting engineering problem and do some preliminary research on it, it might be reasonable to require students to submit a project proposal and annotated bibliography rather than a fully developed report. If your learning objectives are clear, you will see where corners can be cut without sacrificing educational quality.

Articulate the task description clearly.

If an assignment is vague, students may interpret it any number of ways – and not necessarily how you intended. Thus, it is critical to clearly and unambiguously identify the task students are to do (e.g., design a website to help high school students locate environmental resources, create an annotated bibliography of readings on apartheid). It can be helpful to differentiate the central task (what students are supposed to produce) from other advice and information you provide in your assignment description.

Establish clear performance criteria.

Different instructors apply different criteria when grading student work, so it’s important that you clearly articulate to students what your criteria are. To do so, think about the best student work you have seen on similar tasks and try to identify the specific characteristics that made it excellent, such as clarity of thought, originality, logical organization, or use of a wide range of sources. Then identify the characteristics of the worst student work you have seen, such as shaky evidence, weak organizational structure, or lack of focus. Identifying these characteristics can help you consciously articulate the criteria you already apply. It is important to communicate these criteria to students, whether in your assignment description or as a separate rubric or scoring guide . Clearly articulated performance criteria can prevent unnecessary confusion about your expectations while also setting a high standard for students to meet.

Specify the intended audience.

Students make assumptions about the audience they are addressing in papers and presentations, which influences how they pitch their message. For example, students may assume that, since the instructor is their primary audience, they do not need to define discipline-specific terms or concepts. These assumptions may not match the instructor’s expectations. Thus, it is important on assignments to specify the intended audience http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10e.cfm (e.g., undergraduates with no biology background, a potential funder who does not know engineering).

Specify the purpose of the assignment.

If students are unclear about the goals or purpose of the assignment, they may make unnecessary mistakes. For example, if students believe an assignment is focused on summarizing research as opposed to evaluating it, they may seriously miscalculate the task and put their energies in the wrong place. The same is true they think the goal of an economics problem set is to find the correct answer, rather than demonstrate a clear chain of economic reasoning. Consequently, it is important to make your objectives for the assignment clear to students.

Specify the parameters.

If you have specific parameters in mind for the assignment (e.g., length, size, formatting, citation conventions) you should be sure to specify them in your assignment description. Otherwise, students may misapply conventions and formats they learned in other courses that are not appropriate for yours.

A Checklist for Designing Assignments

Here is a set of questions you can ask yourself when creating an assignment.

• Provided a written description of the assignment (in the syllabus or in a separate document)?
• Specified the purpose of the assignment?
• Indicated the intended audience?
• Articulated the instructions in precise and unambiguous language?
• Provided information about the appropriate format and presentation (e.g., page length, typed, cover sheet, bibliography)?  
• Indicated special instructions, such as a particular citation style or headings?  
• Specified the due date and the consequences for missing it?
• Articulated performance criteria clearly?
• Indicated the assignment’s point value or percentage of the course grade?
• Provided students (where appropriate) with models or samples?

Adapted from the WAC Clearinghouse at http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10e.cfm .

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How Do I Create Meaningful and Effective Assignments?

Prepared by allison boye, ph.d. teaching, learning, and professional development center.

Assessment is a necessary part of the teaching and learning process, helping us measure whether our students have really learned what we want them to learn. While exams and quizzes are certainly favorite and useful methods of assessment, out of class assignments (written or otherwise) can offer similar insights into our students' learning.  And just as creating a reliable test takes thoughtfulness and skill, so does creating meaningful and effective assignments. Undoubtedly, many instructors have been on the receiving end of disappointing student work, left wondering what went wrong… and often, those problems can be remedied in the future by some simple fine-tuning of the original assignment.  This paper will take a look at some important elements to consider when developing assignments, and offer some easy approaches to creating a valuable assessment experience for all involved.

First Things First…

Before assigning any major tasks to students, it is imperative that you first define a few things for yourself as the instructor:

• Your goals for the assignment . Why are you assigning this project, and what do you hope your students will gain from completing it? What knowledge, skills, and abilities do you aim to measure with this assignment?  Creating assignments is a major part of overall course design, and every project you assign should clearly align with your goals for the course in general.  For instance, if you want your students to demonstrate critical thinking, perhaps asking them to simply summarize an article is not the best match for that goal; a more appropriate option might be to ask for an analysis of a controversial issue in the discipline. Ultimately, the connection between the assignment and its purpose should be clear to both you and your students to ensure that it is fulfilling the desired goals and doesn't seem like “busy work.” For some ideas about what kinds of assignments match certain learning goals, take a look at this page from DePaul University's Teaching Commons.
• Have they experienced “socialization” in the culture of your discipline (Flaxman, 2005)? Are they familiar with any conventions you might want them to know? In other words, do they know the “language” of your discipline, generally accepted style guidelines, or research protocols?
• Do they know how to conduct research?  Do they know the proper style format, documentation style, acceptable resources, etc.? Do they know how to use the library (Fitzpatrick, 1989) or evaluate resources?
• What kinds of writing or work have they previously engaged in?  For instance, have they completed long, formal writing assignments or research projects before? Have they ever engaged in analysis, reflection, or argumentation? Have they completed group assignments before?  Do they know how to write a literature review or scientific report?

In his book Engaging Ideas (1996), John Bean provides a great list of questions to help instructors focus on their main teaching goals when creating an assignment (p.78):

1. What are the main units/modules in my course?

2. What are my main learning objectives for each module and for the course?

3. What thinking skills am I trying to develop within each unit and throughout the course?

4. What are the most difficult aspects of my course for students?

5. If I could change my students' study habits, what would I most like to change?

6. What difference do I want my course to make in my students' lives?

What your students need to know

Once you have determined your own goals for the assignment and the levels of your students, you can begin creating your assignment.  However, when introducing your assignment to your students, there are several things you will need to clearly outline for them in order to ensure the most successful assignments possible.

• First, you will need to articulate the purpose of the assignment . Even though you know why the assignment is important and what it is meant to accomplish, you cannot assume that your students will intuit that purpose. Your students will appreciate an understanding of how the assignment fits into the larger goals of the course and what they will learn from the process (Hass & Osborn, 2007). Being transparent with your students and explaining why you are asking them to complete a given assignment can ultimately help motivate them to complete the assignment more thoughtfully.
• If you are asking your students to complete a writing assignment, you should define for them the “rhetorical or cognitive mode/s” you want them to employ in their writing (Flaxman, 2005). In other words, use precise verbs that communicate whether you are asking them to analyze, argue, describe, inform, etc.  (Verbs like “explore” or “comment on” can be too vague and cause confusion.) Provide them with a specific task to complete, such as a problem to solve, a question to answer, or an argument to support.  For those who want assignments to lead to top-down, thesis-driven writing, John Bean (1996) suggests presenting a proposition that students must defend or refute, or a problem that demands a thesis answer.
• It is also a good idea to define the audience you want your students to address with their assignment, if possible – especially with writing assignments.  Otherwise, students will address only the instructor, often assuming little requires explanation or development (Hedengren, 2004; MIT, 1999). Further, asking students to address the instructor, who typically knows more about the topic than the student, places the student in an unnatural rhetorical position.  Instead, you might consider asking your students to prepare their assignments for alternative audiences such as other students who missed last week's classes, a group that opposes their position, or people reading a popular magazine or newspaper.  In fact, a study by Bean (1996) indicated the students often appreciate and enjoy assignments that vary elements such as audience or rhetorical context, so don't be afraid to get creative!
• Obviously, you will also need to articulate clearly the logistics or “business aspects” of the assignment . In other words, be explicit with your students about required elements such as the format, length, documentation style, writing style (formal or informal?), and deadlines.  One caveat, however: do not allow the logistics of the paper take precedence over the content in your assignment description; if you spend all of your time describing these things, students might suspect that is all you care about in their execution of the assignment.
• Finally, you should clarify your evaluation criteria for the assignment. What elements of content are most important? Will you grade holistically or weight features separately? How much weight will be given to individual elements, etc?  Another precaution to take when defining requirements for your students is to take care that your instructions and rubric also do not overshadow the content; prescribing too rigidly each element of an assignment can limit students' freedom to explore and discover. According to Beth Finch Hedengren, “A good assignment provides the purpose and guidelines… without dictating exactly what to say” (2004, p. 27).  If you decide to utilize a grading rubric, be sure to provide that to the students along with the assignment description, prior to their completion of the assignment.

A great way to get students engaged with an assignment and build buy-in is to encourage their collaboration on its design and/or on the grading criteria (Hudd, 2003). In his article “Conducting Writing Assignments,” Richard Leahy (2002) offers a few ideas for building in said collaboration:

• Ask the students to develop the grading scale themselves from scratch, starting with choosing the categories.

• Set the grading categories yourself, but ask the students to help write the descriptions.

• Draft the complete grading scale yourself, then give it to your students for review and suggestions.

A Few Do's and Don'ts…

Determining your goals for the assignment and its essential logistics is a good start to creating an effective assignment. However, there are a few more simple factors to consider in your final design. First, here are a few things you should do :

• Do provide detail in your assignment description . Research has shown that students frequently prefer some guiding constraints when completing assignments (Bean, 1996), and that more detail (within reason) can lead to more successful student responses.  One idea is to provide students with physical assignment handouts , in addition to or instead of a simple description in a syllabus.  This can meet the needs of concrete learners and give them something tangible to refer to.  Likewise, it is often beneficial to make explicit for students the process or steps necessary to complete an assignment, given that students – especially younger ones – might need guidance in planning and time management (MIT, 1999).
• Do use open-ended questions.  The most effective and challenging assignments focus on questions that lead students to thinking and explaining, rather than simple yes or no answers, whether explicitly part of the assignment description or in the  brainstorming heuristics (Gardner, 2005).
• Do direct students to appropriate available resources . Giving students pointers about other venues for assistance can help them get started on the right track independently. These kinds of suggestions might include information about campus resources such as the University Writing Center or discipline-specific librarians, suggesting specific journals or books, or even sections of their textbook, or providing them with lists of research ideas or links to acceptable websites.
• Do consider providing models – both successful and unsuccessful models (Miller, 2007). These models could be provided by past students, or models you have created yourself.  You could even ask students to evaluate the models themselves using the determined evaluation criteria, helping them to visualize the final product, think critically about how to complete the assignment, and ideally, recognize success in their own work.
• Do consider including a way for students to make the assignment their own. In their study, Hass and Osborn (2007) confirmed the importance of personal engagement for students when completing an assignment.  Indeed, students will be more engaged in an assignment if it is personally meaningful, practical, or purposeful beyond the classroom.  You might think of ways to encourage students to tap into their own experiences or curiosities, to solve or explore a real problem, or connect to the larger community.  Offering variety in assignment selection can also help students feel more individualized, creative, and in control.
• If your assignment is substantial or long, do consider sequencing it. Far too often, assignments are given as one-shot final products that receive grades at the end of the semester, eternally abandoned by the student.  By sequencing a large assignment, or essentially breaking it down into a systematic approach consisting of interconnected smaller elements (such as a project proposal, an annotated bibliography, or a rough draft, or a series of mini-assignments related to the longer assignment), you can encourage thoughtfulness, complexity, and thoroughness in your students, as well as emphasize process over final product.

Next are a few elements to avoid in your assignments:

• Do not ask too many questions in your assignment.  In an effort to challenge students, instructors often err in the other direction, asking more questions than students can reasonably address in a single assignment without losing focus. Offering an overly specific “checklist” prompt often leads to externally organized papers, in which inexperienced students “slavishly follow the checklist instead of integrating their ideas into more organically-discovered structure” (Flaxman, 2005).
• Do not expect or suggest that there is an “ideal” response to the assignment. A common error for instructors is to dictate content of an assignment too rigidly, or to imply that there is a single correct response or a specific conclusion to reach, either explicitly or implicitly (Flaxman, 2005). Undoubtedly, students do not appreciate feeling as if they must read an instructor's mind to complete an assignment successfully, or that their own ideas have nowhere to go, and can lose motivation as a result. Similarly, avoid assignments that simply ask for regurgitation (Miller, 2007). Again, the best assignments invite students to engage in critical thinking, not just reproduce lectures or readings.
• Do not provide vague or confusing commands . Do students know what you mean when they are asked to “examine” or “discuss” a topic? Return to what you determined about your students' experiences and levels to help you decide what directions will make the most sense to them and what will require more explanation or guidance, and avoid verbiage that might confound them.
• Do not impose impossible time restraints or require the use of insufficient resources for completion of the assignment.  For instance, if you are asking all of your students to use the same resource, ensure that there are enough copies available for all students to access – or at least put one copy on reserve in the library. Likewise, make sure that you are providing your students with ample time to locate resources and effectively complete the assignment (Fitzpatrick, 1989).

The assignments we give to students don't simply have to be research papers or reports. There are many options for effective yet creative ways to assess your students' learning! Here are just a few:

Journals, Posters, Portfolios, Letters, Brochures, Management plans, Editorials, Instruction Manuals, Imitations of a text, Case studies, Debates, News release, Dialogues, Videos, Collages, Plays, Power Point presentations

Ultimately, the success of student responses to an assignment often rests on the instructor's deliberate design of the assignment. By being purposeful and thoughtful from the beginning, you can ensure that your assignments will not only serve as effective assessment methods, but also engage and delight your students. If you would like further help in constructing or revising an assignment, the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center is glad to offer individual consultations. In addition, look into some of the resources provided below.

Online Resources

“Creating Effective Assignments” http://www.unh.edu/teaching-excellence/resources/Assignments.htm This site, from the University of New Hampshire's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning,  provides a brief overview of effective assignment design, with a focus on determining and communicating goals and expectations.

Gardner, T.  (2005, June 12). Ten Tips for Designing Writing Assignments. Traci's Lists of Ten. http://www.tengrrl.com/tens/034.shtml This is a brief yet useful list of tips for assignment design, prepared by a writing teacher and curriculum developer for the National Council of Teachers of English .  The website will also link you to several other lists of “ten tips” related to literacy pedagogy.

“How to Create Effective Assignments for College Students.”  http:// tilt.colostate.edu/retreat/2011/zimmerman.pdf     This PDF is a simplified bulleted list, prepared by Dr. Toni Zimmerman from Colorado State University, offering some helpful ideas for coming up with creative assignments.

“Learner-Centered Assessment” http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/learner_centered_assessment.html From the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo, this is a short list of suggestions for the process of designing an assessment with your students' interests in mind. “Matching Learning Goals to Assignment Types.” http://teachingcommons.depaul.edu/How_to/design_assignments/assignments_learning_goals.html This is a great page from DePaul University's Teaching Commons, providing a chart that helps instructors match assignments with learning goals.

Additional References Bean, J.C. (1996). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Fitzpatrick, R. (1989). Research and writing assignments that reduce fear lead to better papers and more confident students. Writing Across the Curriculum , 3.2, pp. 15 – 24.

Flaxman, R. (2005). Creating meaningful writing assignments. The Teaching Exchange .  Retrieved Jan. 9, 2008 from http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Sheridan_Center/pubs/teachingExchange/jan2005/01_flaxman.pdf

Hass, M. & Osborn, J. (2007, August 13). An emic view of student writing and the writing process. Across the Disciplines, 4. 

Hedengren, B.F. (2004). A TA's guide to teaching writing in all disciplines . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Hudd, S. S. (2003, April). Syllabus under construction: Involving students in the creation of class assignments.  Teaching Sociology , 31, pp. 195 – 202.

Leahy, R. (2002). Conducting writing assignments. College Teaching , 50.2, pp. 50 – 54.

Miller, H. (2007). Designing effective writing assignments.  Teaching with writing .  University of Minnesota Center for Writing. Retrieved Jan. 9, 2008, from http://writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/designing.html

MIT Online Writing and Communication Center (1999). Creating Writing Assignments. Retrieved January 9, 2008 from http://web.mit.edu/writing/Faculty/createeffective.html .

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Teaching Commons > Teaching Guides > Assignment Design

Assignment Design

Here's a short list of some general assignment design strategies that apply to a wide variety of disciplines.

A number of strategies for deterring plagiarism are discussed, including asking your students to write about current topics relevant to your course and staging essay assignments throughout the quarter.

​Integrative learning occurs when students make connections among ideas and experiences in order to transfer learning to new contexts.​

Creative Ways to Design Assignments for Student Success

There are many creative ways in which teachers can design assignments to support student success. We can do this while simultaneously not getting bogged down with the various obstructions that keep students from both completing and learning from the assignments. For me, assignments fall into two categories: those that are graded automatically, such as SmartBook® readings and quizzes in Connect®; and those that I need to grade by hand, such as writing assignments.  

For those of us teaching large, introductory classes, most of our assignments are graded automatically, which is great for our time management. But our students will ultimately deliver a plethora of colorful excuses as to why they were not completed and why extensions are warranted. How do we give them a little leeway to make the semester run more smoothly, so there are fewer worries about a reading that was missed or a quiz that went by too quickly? Here are a few tactics I use. 

Automatically graded assignments: 

Multiple assignment attempts  

• This eases the mental pressure of a timed assignment and covers computer mishaps or human error on the first attempt. 
• You can deduct points for every attempt taken if you are worried about students taking advantage. 

Automatically dropped assignments  

• Within a subset or set of assignments, automatically drop a few from grading. This can take care of all excuses for missing an assignment. 
• Additionally, you can give a little grade boost to those who complete all their assignments (over a certain grade). 

Due dates  

• Consider staggering due dates during the week instead of making them all due on Sunday night.  
• Set the due date for readings the night before you cover the material, so students are prepared.  

Requirements  

• If we want our students to read, then make a reading assignment a requirement of a quiz. 

The tactics above might be applied to written assignments, too. An easy way to bolster a student’s interest and investment in these longer assignments is to give them a choice. This could be in the topic, location of study, or presentation style. For example, if you want them to analyze the susceptibility of a beach to hurricane threat, why not let them choose the location? In this way, you will also be gaining a lot of new information for your own use. 

With a small amount of effort, we can design our classes, so students concentrate on learning the subject matter rather than the logistics of completing the assignments. 

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• Implementing Writing in Your Course

How to Design Successful Writing Assignments

As writing instructors ourselves, we are all too familiar with the many difficulties that come with assigning writing. It’s difficult to create meaningful assignments that help students learn what you want them to learn. And despite all the labor we put into it, students can still express frustration and confusion over writing assignments. It is tempting to ask, “Why bother?”

However, while thoughtful writing instruction tied to learning outcomes takes time to implement, that initial effort can lead to a huge time savings over the long run. Some writing you do not even need to grade! Once you know some of the key components of writing assignment design, you will be able to create a collection of high-value teaching materials that you can adapt for years to come. Also, your students will learn more, and will be better equipped to handle complexity. With regular writing practice and targeted feedback, over time they will become more authoritative participants and contributors in your field.

Designing successful writing assignments involves some or all of the following six strategies:

• Explicitly State Assignment Goals
• Tie Assignment Goals to Course Goals
• Create Antiracist Writing Assignments
• Offer Clear Instructions for Completion
• Clarify Expectations About Genre, Audience, and Formatting
• Provide Examples of the Kinds of Writing You Assign
• Asses Your Own Work

1. Explicitly State Assignment Goals

Are students “writing to learn” key course concepts from course materials or “learning to write” a new and specific form of communication in the class, such as a lab report or business memo? Or do you want your assignment to do some of both? Try to be as specific as possible when thinking about the assignment’s purpose. We encourage you to even jot down some of your desired outcomes. Being detailed about what you want students to gain from completing the assignment will help you create clear instructions for the assignment.

The example below is a strong example of a “writing to learn” assignment. In this assignment the instructor uses words such as "read," “explore,” “shape,” and “reflect” to clearly indicate that the act of composing in this assignment is more about attaining knowledge than it is about the creation of a final product. 

From a prompt for a personal narrative in a science writing course: 

All scientists have intellectual, cultural, and linguistic histories. For the sake of “neutrality” and “objectivity,” apprentices are often trained to separate themselves from these histories, especially when it comes to conducting and communicating research. This assignment asks you to read examples of scientists’ memoirs in various genres and then you will compose your own narrative in the mode of your choice, exploring how your identities, investments, and intellectual interests have shaped your science training and your trajectory as a scientist. This assignment serves as a form of reflection, orientation to/within a scientific field, and even as a professional credential (if desirable).

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2. Tie Assignment Goals to Course Goals

While you know why you are assigning a particular writing assignment, your students may not. Being clear about how completing the writing assignment will help your students learn can help create expectations and motivation for students. Without a clear understanding of how a writing assignment will help them learn, students may feel that they are being assigned useless "busywork."

Example 1 :

The example below is drawn from the final paper assignment for a course called “Imagining and Dreaming: Indigenous Futures,” taught by Lydia Heberling. In this assignment, the instructor not only clearly shows students how the assignment aligns with the course content, but it also reminds students how the third section of the course builds upon content learned in earlier units.

Throughout the quarter we have examined various writing practices that affirm the ongoing existence of American Indian peoples in spite of settler colonial attempts to remove, erase, and eradicate them. In our first sequence, we reflected on the relationship between place and identity and learned from Momaday that the land possesses stories from the past that can be accessed through interaction with and memories of those places.

In our second sequence, we examined a contemporary activist moment to deepen our understanding of the ongoing relational formations between Indigenous peoples and how those relations revitalize cultures from the brink of extinction. In learning about how various tribes worked together to protect a valuable natural resource by employing media and storytelling practices to garner support and attention, we learned that regardless of the outcome, activist moments like Standing Rock demonstrate a strong trans-Indigenous community that continues to survive in spite of ongoing settler colonial tactics of dispossession and erasure.

In this third, and last sequence, we are focusing on imagining, or dreaming about, vibrant Indigenous futures. Athabascan poet and scholar (and UW professor) Dian Million defines dreaming the following way [. . .]

Your task i n this next assignment is to return to the place you described in Paper 1, imagine what that place looks like 100 years from now. . .

Example 2 :

Here’s a second example of a writing assignment, created by Jen Malone for a course on writing in environmental science, which clearly demonstrates to students how the writing assignment both builds on previous course content and how it will help students cultivate research skills that they will be able to use in future writing assignments.

Thus far in this class, we’ve written an Op-Ed about ecotourism, and we will be moving into writing a short research paper on the topic of your choice later on in the quarter. But first, we’re going to do something a bit different.

Learning to research well is largely about practice—both in terms of growing accustomed to search engines (particularly scholarly ones) and library databases, and in terms of learning to plug different versions of your research terms into these search engines/databases until you find useful sources. Using research well is largely about figuring out how to analyze your sources--particularly in combination with one another, as a body of research. In order to practice both of these skills (which will totally help us to prepare for Paper #3, later on in the quarter), for Paper #2 we will. . .

3. Create Antiracist Writing Assignments

Antiracist writing instruction is usually discussed in relation to assessment, but it should be considered earlier than that, during assignment creation (just as it should be considered as key elements of curriculum and class culture). Antiracist writing assignment design can be pursued in two ways: through the subject matter, or content, of the writing assignments; and through your values around language use. Some brief suggestions for each follow.

Promoting antiracist subject matter in writing assignments:

Take a step back and discuss knowledge frameworks in your course and in your field. Every discipline has knowledge traditions and methods that can be problematic. How did these traditions come to be? Who do they serve, and who do they harm?

Avoid reductionist binaries when discussing complex questions. For example, framing a question like "What are the pros and cons of conducting medical research without subjects' knowledge or consent?" may lead students to consider both sides as having equal moral weight. A more specific (so a particular context can be considered) and open-ended (so students are not led to one or the other answer) question might work better. For example, "What are some of the ethical considerations of conducting flu vaccine clinical trials without participants' consent?"

Give students opportunities to explore their own identities in relation to the course content. Drawing personal connections not only helps foster deeper learning, but it can also cultivate a student’s sense of belonging in the field. It may also help you see how your field might serve some but not others. 

Encourage students to engage academic and non-academic source material. Have discussions about what “counts” as authoritative information in your field, and why.

Promoting linguistic justice in writing assignments: 

As this site from Wesleyan College recommends, “Centralize rhetorical situations and writing contexts rather than language standards in your writing classroom.” If you show that all language use (content, structure, syntax, vocabulary, style) is based on authorial choices made in particular contexts and for particular audiences, then you can help bust the myth of the universal standard of “academic English.”

Encourage students to use their own linguistic traditions whenever possible. For example, let students freewrite in a native language or dialect. Encourage them to draw connections between their own language backgrounds and the disciplinary discourse you are teaching. This is called translanguaging, and it can be a powerful tool for learning.

Avoid penalizing language use. If there is a certain style or vocabulary you want students to use, be explicit about why discourse is used that way, and how it conveys discipline-specific knowledge.

Further reading: 10 Ways to Tackle Linguistic Bias in Our Classrooms (Inside HigherEd)

4. Offer Clear Instructions for Completion

Investigative or writing techniques that seem obvious to you—such as making an argument, analyzing, evaluating—might mean something different to students from outside your specific discipline. Being clear about what you mean when you use certain terms can help students navigate an assignment more successfully. While it might feel clunky or obvious, including this information in an assignment will help steer your students in the right direction and minimize miscommunication.

In the following excerpt from a prompt for a writing-in-history course taught by Sumyat Thu, the instructor asks students to use research in their papers, and then clearly describes, and supports with examples from the class and library resources, what counts as appropriate source material.

This essay is based on research. Students are expected to use primary sources and secondary works in developing their essays. We do not frown on the use of on-line resources ; indeed, some very good reference works ( identified on the history librarian Ms. Mudrock's research guide) are available as on-line books, and the library has e-book versions of Paul Spickard's  Almost All Aliens . Nonetheless, we strongly urge students to utilize the very rich materials available in the UW Libraries, particularly scholarly books and articles. The UW Libraries' on-line catalog can be explored with keyword searches, and such indexes as America: History and Life (again, see Ms. Mudrock’s website) are very helpful as well.

In this second example, again by Jen Malone, we see how the instructor not only indicates what chronological steps students must take to complete the assignment, but also how she includes thorough and clear instructions for how students can complete each step.

So, the first step you’ll need to take will be to choose a topic . You may wish to choose the same topic you’ll be using for your research paper in ENVIR 100 (if you’ve chosen that option—if so, please follow any instructions they’ve given you for choosing a topic for that), or something related to environmental science that simply interests you, or a topic from the following list of suggestions:

• GMOs (particularly with regards to the ecosystem and/or biodiversity),
• The environmental impact of meat production
• Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder

The second step you’ll need to take will be to do the research —you’ll need to find some sources (via library search engines, Google scholar, etc.). Keep some notes or a log of this process, since you’ll have to talk about how this went for you in your final report. Then you’ll need to read/skim the sources you’ve selected, and then you’ll need to create an annotated bibliography in which you list and briefly summarize those sources. An annotated bibliography is a particularly handy step when performing research, or when writing a paper that involves research. Basically, it is a list of the sources you intend to use for your paper (like a Works Cited page, you may use either MLA or APA format), but with the addition of a substantial paragraph (or two, if you wish) beneath each entry in which you summarize, and often evaluate, the source. This will help you to consider the sources you find as a body of research, and this makes using sources easier because you’ll have these initial notes handy as you write your report.

After you find and skim through your sources, the third step you’ll need to take will be to write the report .

• In the first section of the report, you’ll want to talk about your research process (What was this like? What was easy for you and what was difficult? What did you learn? What search terms did you use? How did those terms change?).
• In the second section of the report, you’ll want to talk about the body of research as a whole (How would you describe the issues/terms/debates surrounding the topic? What did you find? What do these sources indicate—both in terms of conclusions drawn and questions raised? How do these sources fit together and/or differ? What did you find most interesting?)
• In the third section of the report, you’ll want to take a moment to consider how this body of research fits it with what you’re learning in ENVIR 100 and where you might take the topic in a future paper (How do you see what you found regarding this topic as relating to what has been discussed in class thus far? What are the stakes of this topic and for whom? What aspects of this topic do we seem to know little about? What are the questions you still have about this topic? And, finally, now that you’ve read through this body of research, if you were going to write a paper on this topic, what might your basic argument be?). We’ll discuss this all in more detail next week, after you’ve compiled your sources.

Note: the second example may be a lot longer of a writing prompt than many of us are used to. This is not a bad thing. In fact, students tend to really appreciate such clear instruction and it reduces the amount of time you will spend clarifying confusion about what is expected. Also, instructions like these can be easily re-purposed for other, similar assignments in the future so you will not have to reinvent the wheel each time.

5. Clarify Expectations About Genre, Audience, and Formatting

Students will approach your writing assignment with varying knowledge and experience. Unless you have already instructed students explicitly in class about the knowledge and skills needed to complete a writing assignment, you cannot assume that students will already possess that knowledge. While clear, explicit prompts are essential, we also strongly urge you to discuss in class the genre you are assigning as well. Offer examples, both from professionals in the field, and from former students. The more exposure students have to the kinds of writing you want to see, the the more inclusive and accessible your assignments will be. We know of a history TA who said that one of her students, an engineering major, wasn't clear on the nature of a historiography, so he turned in his paper formatted like a technical report! This is an understandable mistake for a student to make, and providing examples can prevent mistakes like this from happening in your own classroom.

Below are two examples of how instructors communicate their expectations about genre, audience, and formatting to students. The first example is less helpful for students because it leaves key parts of the instructor’s expectations vague. (What is the writing assignment’s audience? What citation style does the instructor prefer? Is the works cited page part of the assignment or not?) The second example provides more detail for students.

Example 1: Paper must be 4-5 pages double spaced and must include a works cited page.

Example 2 : T he business memo should be fo rmatted according to the parameters we have discussed: no more than two pages long , typed, single-spaced with one space between paragraphs , with standard margins, in Times New Roman font (12 point), written for an audience of industry professionals.

6. Provide Examples of the Kinds of Writing You Assign

Studies have shown that examples can be a powerful learning tool in writing instruction. We recommend that instructors distribute examples of both successful and unsuccessful student writing to their students and explain why the examples are successful or unsuccessful.

Ask students who have submitted successful assignments if you can borrow their work as examples for future classes. Be sure to remove students’ identifying information from the assignments before they are given to future students.

If you do not have examples of unsuccessful writing (remember, sharing even anonymized student writing without the author's consent would be unethical), you can alternatively create a list of common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid when completing the writing assignment. Distribute the list to your students. Be sure to ground these pitfalls in terms of higher order issues specific to this genre, rather than just distributing a one-size-fits-all personal list of writing pet peeves.

Ask students which examples help them learn the genre, and which do not. Over time your students will help you curate a really great collection of samples.

Create occasional reading assignments where you ask students to find and analyze examples of writing by professionals in the field. What makes them effective or ineffective examples of the genre? What are some of the text's defining characteristics? These kinds of analyses can really help students improve their own writing.

7. Assess Your Own Work

Assessment is not just for student writing: it’s also important to assess the efficacy of the assignments you create. If student work is disappointing or students have struggled with an assignment, it most likely a result of ineffective assignment design. Please remember: everyone , even seasoned writing instructors, has assignments that do not go well initially. That is normal and ok!

We recommend that you engage in self-reflection as to why your assignment did not turn out well, and make tweaks to the assignment and/or grading criteria as needed. Here are some questions to ask yourself to reflect on your writing assignments.

Did many students turn in work which did not meet your expectations? In what specific ways did they fall short?

Did many students struggle with the assignment or a particular piece of the assignment? Where, exactly, did they struggle and how do you know?

Were many students surprised or dissatisfied by their grades on the assignment? Why do you think this happened?

Strategies for understanding what went wrong

Ask your students, either in class, on Canvas, or in a survey like a Google Form, to debrief the assignment. What was easy for them about the assignment? What did they learn from it? What was challenging? What was unclear?

Take writing assignments to writing centers such as OWRC or CLUE to get student feedback on updated or streamlined assignments. Student writing tutors can be a great resource-- they've seen hundreds of writing assignments!

Next guide: Supporting Academic Integrity

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16 Transparent assignment design

Transparent assignment design is a component of the Transparency in Learning and Teaching ( TILT ) framework that aims to make learning and assessment more explicit for students. Studies show that conveying the purpose, task, and criteria of assignments helps students meet the assignment’s expectations and increases academic performance (Winkelmes, 2016). Transparently designed educational experiences enhance learning for all students, increasing their academic achievement, sense of belonging, and graduation and retention rates, especially for underserved student populations (Winkelmes, 2016).

To effectively implement this strategy into your course, you can start by stating the purpose, task, and criteria of learning experiences (e.g., an assignment, office hours, group work activity, or a final exam). This method has shown significant results even after modifying only two assignments in a course.

Purpose: The purpose section clearly states the assignment’s learning objectives and connects them to the broader course context and to critical skills and knowledge that students will gain or develop through this experience. In the transparent assignment template, Mary-Ann Winkelmes suggests these phrases: “The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice the following skills that are essential to your success in this course / in school / in this field / in professional life beyond school …” and “This assignment will also help you to become familiar with the following important content knowledge in this discipline …” (Winkelmes, 2013).

Task: In the task section, share concrete steps students should take to perform this activity. You can also discuss potential mistakes students should avoid. If figuring out the process is a part of a task, you could explicitly state that: “The purpose of this assignment is for you to struggle and feel confused while you invent and test your own approach for addressing the problem.” (Winkelmes, 2013).

Criteria for success: In the criteria section, describe the characteristics of the finished assignment and share multiple examples of presenting the result. Share rubrics, evaluation guidelines, and principles. Understanding assignment criteria helps nurture students’ self-assessment skills.

To make your assignments more transparent, consult the TILT checklist,   template , and  rubric  to measure transparency. We also encourage you to participate in our  asynchronous self-paced  Transparent Course Design Workshop .  

The Center for Teaching staff also offer partnership for instructors who would like to produce research on the efficacy of their assignment design. Please see the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) program web pages for more information on developing and conducting SoTL.

💡 Draft a transparent assignment:

Choose a major assignment or a learning activity you would like to introduce to your students during the first days of your course. Formulate its purpose, task, and criteria. Write out and format this assignment as you would for your students. This part should look like an artifact (e.g., a handout or a presentation slide) you could use in your class.

Handbook for Teaching Excellence Copyright © 2022 by University of Iowa - Center for Teaching. All Rights Reserved.

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The Cowbell

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Assignment Design

There’s a fine line between assignment design and assessment strategies . In short, designing good assignments is one means of assessing your students’ learning on a larger scale.

Assignments help measure student learning in your course. Effective assignment design in your course involves aligning your assignments with learning outcomes. When assignments and outcomes are aligned, good grades and good learning go hand in hand ( https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/assessments.html ).

Assessments fall into one of two categories, formative or summative .

Formative assessments are typically low-stakes and help students identify their strengths and weaknesses so that they can improve their learning. Routine formative assessments also help instructors identify the areas where students are struggling and adapt their teaching accordingly.

Summative assessments evaluate student learning (such as at the end of a unit of instruction). Summative assessments are generally higher stakes (like midterm exams and final projects).

Assignments are what students actually ‘do’ as part of those assessments.

Incorporating a mix of assignment activities in your course can help students practice and demonstrate their mastery of outcomes in multiple ways. Consider ways you can design your assignments so that they better mirror the application of knowledge in real-world scenarios. Assignments designed in this way are often referred to as Authentic Assessments ( Authentic-assessment.pdf (uwex.edu)). One type of highly authentic assessment is the long-term project which challenges students to solve a problem or complete a challenge requiring the application of course concepts ( Project_Based_Learning.pdf (uwex.edu) ).

More details and examples can be found in the tabbed content box below. Please also consider signing up for a CATL consultation with one of our instructional designers for some personalized assistance in developing your ideas for assignments and ensuring that they align with your course outcomes .

(Adapted from Carnegie Mellon's:  Design and Teach a Course )

Assessments should provide instructors and students with evidence of how well students have mastered the course outcomes.

There are two major reasons for aligning assessments with learning outcomes.

• Alignment increases the probability that we will provide students with the opportunities to learn and practice knowledge and skills that instructors will require students know in the objectives and in the assessments. (Teaching to the assessment is a  good  thing.)
• When instructors align assessments with outcomes, students are more likely to translate "good grades" into "good learning." Conversely, when instructors misalign assessments with objectives, students will focus on getting good grades on the assessments, rather than focusing on mastering the material that the instructor finds important.

Instructors may use different types of assessments to measure student proficiency in a learning objective. Moreover, instructors may use the same activity to measure different objectives. To ensure a more accurate assessment of student proficiency, many instructional designers recommend that you use different kinds of activities so that students have multiple ways to practice and demonstrate their knowledge and skills.

Formative assessment

The goal of formative assessment is to  monitor student learning  to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:

• help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work
• help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately

Formative assessments are generally  low stakes , which means that they have low or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:

• draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic
• submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture
• turn in a research proposal for early feedback

Summative assessment

The goal of summative assessment is to  evaluate student learning  at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.

Summative assessments are often  high stakes , which means that they have a high point value. Examples of summative assessments include:

• a midterm exam
• a final project
• a senior recital

Information from summative assessments can be used formatively when students or faculty use it to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.

Formative Assessments:

• Reading quizzes
• Concept map
• Muddiest point
• Pro/con grid
• Focused paraphrasing
• Reflective journal
• Virtual lab/game
• Webconference
• Debate (synchronous or asynchronous)
• Participant research
• Peer review

Summative Assessments:

• Presentation
• Portfolio project

Carnegie Mellon University on Aligning Assessments with Objectives with examples.

Items to consider when weighing your assessment options:

If you are thinking about using discussions, be sure to think about the following:.

• What kind of questions/situations do you want the students to discuss? Is it complex enough to allow students to build knowledge beyond the textbook? Will the discussion help students meet your objectives (and develop an answer for your essential questions)?
• What are your expectations for discussions? Should students participate (post) a certain number of times, with a certain number of words, and reply to a certain number of people?
• What is your role in the discussion (traffic cop, the person who clarifies issues, will you respond to every post)?

If you are thinking about using quizzes, be sure to think about the following:

• What type of questions will help your students meet the objectives of the course? Are you going to grade essay questions or just let the computer grade multiple choice questions?
• What is the place for academic integrity? Are you going to randomize questions, randomize answers, restrict time, restrict the answers that students can see after completing the exam?
• How are you going to populate your quiz? Are you going to write the questions or use questions that come from a textbook publisher?

If you are thinking of using essays, be sure to think about the following:

• Will these essays/papers help students to meet the course objectives, which ones? Is the length of the essay appropriate?
• What do you think about plagiarism checkers such as TurnItIn?
• To what extent will you allow students to submit drafts, and will you provide feedback on drafts, or will you use a peer review system?

Other items to consider:

• Are you thinking about using an alternative assignment? If so, you may want to talk with an instructional technologist or designer.
• Consider the type of feedback you will provide for each assignment. What should students expect from you; how will you communicate those expectations; and how soon will you provide feedback (realistically)?

Further resources

Small teaching online.

This book (requires UWGB login) contains many tips that are easy to integrate into your distance education class. The chapter on “ surfacing backward design” contains many tips for assessment for online classes, many of which are adaptable to all distance modalities.

CATL Resources

• Collaborative Learning Assignments  (Toolbox article)
• Administering Tests and Quizzes (including alternatives) (Toolbox article)
• Writing Good Multiple Choice Questions ( TeAch Tuesday , YouTube)

Tip sheets from UW-System

UW-System put together some tip sheets for common sticking points in assessment for distance education.

• Writing effective multiple choice questions
• Authentic assessments
• Unproctored online assessments
• Project-based learning

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Sections: General Principles of Assignment Design Additional Resources

General Principles of Assignment Design

Assignments: Make Them Effective, Engaging, and Equitable. At their best, assignments are one of the most important learning experiences for students in a course. Students grapple with course content, deepen their understanding, form new ideas, connections, and questions, and show how they are achieving the course or program learning outcomes. Assignments can also affirm students' social identities, interests, and abilities in ways that foster belonging and academic success.

Characteristics of Effective, Engaging, and Equitable Assignments

• Address the central learning outcomes/objectives of your courses. This ensures the relevancy of the assignment (students won’t wonder why they’re doing it) and provides you with an assessment of student learning that tells you about the progress your students are making.
• Interesting and challenging . What assignments are most memorable to you? Chances are they asked you to apply knowledge to an interesting problem or to do it in a creative way. Assignments can be seen as more relevant when they connect to a real world problem or situation, or when students imagine they are presenting the information to a real world audience (e.g., policy makers), or when they can bring in some aspect of their own experience. Assignments can also be contextualized to reflect the values or priorities of the institution.
• Purpose: Why are you asking students to do the assignment? How does it connect with course learning objectives and support broader skill development that students can draw upon well after your class is over? Often the purpose is very clear to us but we don’t always spell it out for our students.
• Tasks: What steps will students need to take to complete the assignment successfully? Laying this out helps students organize what they need to do and when.
• Criteria for Success: What does excellence look like? This can be described through text or a rubric that aligns expectations with the key elements of the assignment.
• Utility value: How can you make adjustments that allow students to perceive the assignment has more value, either professionally, academically, or personally?
• Inclusive content: Is the assignment equally accessible to all students? If examples are drawn from the dominant culture, they are less accessible to students from other cultures. Structuring assignments so that content is equally familiar to all students reduces educational equity gaps by limiting the effects of prior knowledge and privilege.
• Flexibility and variety: Consider how much flexibility and variety you’re offering in your assignments. This allows students to show what they have learned regardless of their academic strengths or familiarity with particular assignment types. Can students choose among different formats for how they’ll present their assignment (paper, podcast or infographic); is there variety in formats across all the course assignments? Multi-modal assignments allow students to represent what they know in various ways and are therefore more equitable by design.
• Support assignments with instructional activities. Planning learning activities that support students’ best work on their assignments is another critical component. This can include having students read model articles in the style in which you are asking them to prepare their own assignment, discuss or apply the rubric to a sample paper, or break the assignment into smaller pieces so that students can get feedback from you or peers on how they are progressing. Another way to support students is to make clear the role of tools like ChatGPT: if it’s used, how can students use it effectively and responsibly? More generally, all major assignments provide opportunities for important discussions about academic integrity and its relevance to work in one’s discipline, higher education, and personal development.
• Provide opportunities for feedback and revision (especially if high-stakes) . Students may receive feedback on their progress or drafts in a variety of ways: peer, faculty, or a library partner. The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning identifies four characteristics of effective feedback: Targeted and Concise; Focused; Action-Oriented; and Timely.

For assignments that ask students to write in the style of a particular discipline and draw upon research, SCU’s Success in Writing, Information, and Research Literacy (SWIRL) project has developed guidance for faculty in assignment design and instruction to improve student writing and critical use of information. 

You can download the WRITE assignment design tool and learn more at the SWIRL website. Members of the SWIRL team welcome individual consultations with faculty on assignment design. You are welcome to contact them for feedback on any assignment you’re designing.

Additional Resources:

Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2021). Feedback for Learning. Columbia University. Retrieved [February 26, 2024] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/resources/feedback-for-learning/

Hobbs H. T., Singer-Freeman K. E., Robinson C. (2021). Considering the effects of assignment choices on equity gaps. Research and Practice in Assessment, 16 (1), 49–62.

SWIRL : For assignments that ask students to write in the style of a particular discipline and draw upon research, SCU’s Success in Writing, Information, and Research Literacy (SWIRL) project has developed guidance for faculty in assignment design and instruction to improve student writing and critical use of information. You can download the WRITE assignment design tool and learn more at the SWIRL website. 

Transparency in Higher Education Project: Examples and Resources. Copyright © 2009-2023 M.A. Winkelmes. Retrieved [February 26, 2024] from   https://tilthighered.com/tiltexamplesandresources

Winkelmes, M., Boye, A., & Tapp, S. (Eds.). (2019). Transparent design in higher education teaching and leadership. Stylus Publishing.

Page authors: Chris Bachen

Last updated: March 5, 2024

Teaching Topic

Assignment Design

A good assignment helps the professor and students pursue the learning goals of the course. Rather than starting with a prefabricated assignment, then, this is another opportune moment for backward design ; ideally, you start with your course goals and think creatively to devise work that will help you meet them. In practice, this means that a good assignment generally does two things: it reinforces important learning and offers an opportunity for the professor to assess the quality of that learning.

Considering your course goals

Seattle University English Professor John Bean, in his book Engaging Ideas , recommends asking yourself the following questions as you prepare to design an assignment:

• What are the main units or modules in my course?
• What are my main learning objectives for each of these modules and for the whole course? What are the chief concepts and principles that I want students to learn in each unit or module?
• What thinking skills am I trying to develop within each unit or module and throughout the whole course?
• Based on previous students’ experience, what are the most difficult aspects of my course for students?
• If I could change my students’ study habits, what would I most like to change?
• What difference do I want my course to make in my students’ lives—in their sense of self, their values, their ways of thinking? What is my unique stamp on this course? Ten years later, what do I want them to remember most about my course?

As you proceed, be clear (with yourself and, subsequently, with your students) on your specific goals for the students ( Learning Goals page ). It’s daunting to attempt to design an assignment that taps “critical thinking” (in all its possible forms), but it’s quite possible to craft something more focused, if your goal is also more focused. For example, if you want students to be able to come to conclusions amidst potentially contradictory information, you could assign a literature review that asks students to consider, weigh, and critique various scientific studies in order to summarize what we know about a particular phenomenon; if, on the other hand, “critical thinking” means (to you) the ability to question ideas effectively, you could ask students to deconstruct and evaluate an opinion piece. If you want students to gain an understanding of what it’s like to work in your field, you can get specific with that, too; would a poster presentation make the most sense, or the performance of an experiment, or an essay that conforms to your discipline’s manual of style? If you want students to have an “understanding of the topic,” does that mean the ability to produce facts when asked (which might call for a test, or a Q & A session following a presentation), or does it mean the ability to see gaps in the field’s understanding (which might warrant a practice grant proposal)? Determine exactly what you want from your students, and design the assignment to get at that exact thing.

Another consideration is the complexity of the learning goal . If you’re looking for something fairly complex, you could design assignments to build slowly toward the final outcome. For example, if you want students to be able to write a full-blown psychology research paper by the end of the semester, it might help to break that down into smaller chunks, asking them to put together an introduction first, and then a method section, and so on, each time giving them feedback so that they’re ultimately ready to successfully put together something complete. If the final project is a complicated performance, perhaps students could demonstrate successful singing separately from successful movement on the stage, and only then integrate the two.

Once you’ve determined the goals that will be the focus of the assignment, there’s no reason to keep them to yourself, of course. Share them with your students so that they’ll know the reason for the assignment, and how to focus their efforts.

Reinforcing learning

If designed well, an assignment gives students a chance to rehearse, practice, and integrate the most important knowledge and skills they’ve picked up thus far in the class—and even to learn new things . This is what makes it the opposite of busywork. First of all, if the assignment is truly germane to the subject matter and goals of the course, it’ll by necessity push students to review relevant material. Then, by asking students to restate, transform, and apply that material, the work will deepen understanding. An essay might require students to synthesize various readings or theories; a presentation demands that learners find ways to express ideas in their own words; a research proposal strengthens one’s grasp of concepts by pushing toward the application of those concepts. Along the way you might be interested in developing new knowledge or skills; for example, maybe you want students to investigate a topic but also practice the ability to work effectively with others; group work, if structured well, can help people attain interpersonal as well as academic goals. Blogging can, too.

It bears noting that, in many cases, students will need more than one round of practice in order to master what they need to master. Consider whether your second assignment should resemble your first in order to give them adequate experience before moving on to new things.

To this end, also consider whether more frequent, smaller assignments might lead to more practice opportunities (and perhaps more learning) than fewer, higher-stakes assignments.

Giving instructions

As mentioned above, it’s important to let students know what your goals and expectations are for any given assignment . It can be especially helpful to give these instructions in multiple formats, including aloud and in writing. A written version of instructions, according to John Bean, has several advantages: “(1) it meets the need of sensing or concrete learners…(2) it gives all students something to refer to late at night when their class notes no longer seem so clear; (3) if your institution has a writing center, it helps writing consultants understand what the professor is looking for…(4) most importantly, it helps professors identify potential problems with the assignment and thus clarify its purpose and focus.” He further argues that assignment instructions should be clear about the nature of the task, the audience, format, expectations for students’ work process (e.g., revisions, group work, etc.), and the assessment criteria you’ll be applying.

It’s also important to avoid busywork for the teacher, and busywork happens when you end up grading something that tells you little to nothing important about students’ learning, just for the sake of having something to grade. Instead, aim to assign students work that demands relevant and informative performances . The bottom line is to assign work that allows students to demonstrate what you really want to see. An open-book take-home exam isn’t a great way to assess memorization of concepts, but it can be an excellent way to see what students do with those concepts when they have time to review them and gather their thoughts.

This is another place where rubrics come in handy, for you and for the students. Designing the rubric (and see our Assessment Portal for more on this) helps you to get clear on what you’re looking for, and—if you discover that your assignment, as originally designed, won’t give you much that’s worth grading—might even cause you to revise the assignment before sharing it with the students. Then, when the rubric is in students’ hands, it will (ideally) guide them to produce an assignment that will reveal what they’re capable of.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that “assessment” is not synonymous with “grading” ( Grading page ). It may be that you want to assign grades to each of your students’ assignments, or it may be that you want to use them simply to gather information (and you might, for example, give students full credit for effortful work rather than grades based on their relative effectiveness at the task).

• Sherry Linkon, English 750: Humanities in the Community — a reflection assignment based on group coursework, with a clear statement about the goal of the assignment—”The point is not to complain (though some complaining may feel good) but to identify how the choices you and your colleagues make, not only about your event but in your interactions as a team, affect the project and your relationships”—as well as an articulation of grading criteria.
• Joshua Meredith, Human Resources Management 700: Workplace Ethics — a combination oral and take-home written midterm exam , with a clear grading rubric.
• Deb Sivigny, Theater and Performing Studies 170: Principles of Design — a hands-on project asking students to design—and redesign—business cards reflecting, in terms of content and form, what these students “claimed as their own.”)
• Ernesto Vasquez del Aguila, Anthropology 342: Masculinities — a final paper with multiple options for approaches and clear instructions on what each section of the paper should be doing. “Over time you will develop your own system for reading, taking notes and writing. However, despite differences between people’s approaches to essay writing, every good essay should follow this basic structure.”)
• Sabrina Wesley-Nero, Education, Inquiry, and Justice 401: Capstone — a final proposal in which students are asked “to use the PEDIJ as a springboard toward how you define ‘what’s next’ and how what you’ve learned in EDIJ can impact education, educational equity, and/or education equality,” with a clear rubric provided.)

Additional resources

• Bean, John C. (2001). Engaging Ideas . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Dartmouth University Institute for Writing and Rhetoric. Syllabus and Assignment Design .
• Weimer, Maryellen. How Assignment Design Shapes Student Learning . Faculty Focus, April 2015.

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AI Teaching Strategies: Transparent Assignment Design

The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Jasper Chat raises many questions about the ways we teach and the ways students learn. While some of these questions concern how we can use AI to accomplish learning goals and whether or not that is advisable, others relate to how we can facilitate critical analysis of AI itself. 

The wide variety of questions about AI and the rapidly changing landscape of available tools can make it hard for educators to know where to start when designing an assignment. When confronted with new technologies—and the new teaching challenges they present—we can often turn to existing evidence-based practices for the guidance we seek.

This guide will apply the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework to "un-complicate" planning an assignment that uses AI, providing guiding questions for you to consider along the way. 

The result should be an assignment that supports you and your students to approach the use of AI in a more thoughtful, productive, and ethical manner.    

Plan your assignment.

The TILT framework offers a straightforward approach to assignment design that has been shown to improve academic confidence and success, sense of belonging, and metacognitive awareness by making the learning process clear to students (Winkelmes et al., 2016). The TILT process centers around deciding—and then communicating—three key components of your assignment: 1) purpose, 2) tasks, and 3) criteria for success. 

Step 1: Define your purpose.

To make effective use of any new technology, it is important to reflect on our reasons for incorporating it into our courses. In the first step of TILT, we think about what we want students to gain from an assignment and how we will communicate that purpose to students.

The  SAMR model , a useful tool for thinking about educational technology use in our courses, lays out four tiers of technology integration. The tiers, roughly in order of their sophistication and transformative power, are S ubstitution, A ugmentation, M odification, and R edefinition. Each tier may suggest different approaches to consider when integrating AI into teaching and learning activities. 

Questions to consider:

• Do you intend to use AI as a substitution, augmentation, modification, or redefinition of an existing teaching practice or educational technology?
• What are your learning goals and expected learning outcomes?
• Do you want students to understand the limitations of AI or to experience its applications in the field? 
• Do you want students to reflect on the ethical implications of AI use?  

Bloom’s Taxonomy is another useful tool for defining your assignment’s purpose and your learning goals and outcomes. 

This downloadable Bloom’s Taxonomy Revisited resource , created by Oregon State University, highlights the differences between AI capabilities and distinctive human skills at each Bloom's level, indicating the types of assignments you should review or change in light of AI. Bloom's Taxonomy Revisited is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).  

Access a transcript of the graphic .

Step 2: Define the tasks involved.

In the next step of TILT, you list the steps students will take when completing the assignment. In what order should they do specific tasks, what do they need to be aware of to perform each task well, and what mistakes should they avoid? Outlining each step is especially important if you’re asking students to use generative AI in a limited manner. For example, if you want them to begin with generative AI but then revise, refine, or expand upon its output, make clear which steps should involve their own thinking and work as opposed to AI’s thinking and work.

• Are you designing this assignment as a single, one-time task or as a longitudinal task that builds over time or across curricular and co-curricular contexts?  For longitudinal tasks consider the experiential learning cycle (Kolb, 1984) . In Kolb’s cycle, learners have a concrete experience followed by reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. For example, students could record their generative AI prompts, the results, a reflection on the results, and the next prompt they used to get improved output. In subsequent tasks students could expand upon or revise the AI output into a final product. Requiring students to provide a record of their reflections, prompts, and results can create an “AI audit trail,” making the task and learning more transparent.
• What resources and tools are permitted or required for students to complete the tasks involved with the assignment? Make clear which steps should involve their own thinking (versus AI-generated output, for example), required course materials, and if references are required. Include any ancillary resources students will need to accomplish tasks, such as guidelines on how to cite AI , in APA 7.0 for example.
• How will you offer students flexibility and choice? As of this time, most generative AI tools have not been approved for use by Ohio State, meaning they have not been  vetted for security, privacy, or accessibility issues . It is known that many platforms are not compatible with screen readers, and there are outstanding questions as to what these tools do with user data. Students may have understandable apprehensions about using these tools or encounter barriers to doing so successfully. So while there may be value in giving students first-hand experience with using AI, it’s important to give them the choice to opt out. As you outline your assignment tasks, plan how to provide alternative options to complete them. Could you provide AI output you’ve generated for students to work with, demonstrate use of the tool during class, or allow use of another tool that enables students to meet the same learning outcomes.

Microsoft Copilot is currently the only generative AI tool that has been vetted and approved for use at Ohio State. As of February 2024, the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation (OTDI) has enabled it for use by students, faculty, and staff. Copilot is an AI chatbot that draws from public online data, but with additional security measures in place. For example, conversations within the tool aren’t stored. Learn more and stay tuned for further information about Copilot in the classroom.

• What are your expectations for academic integrity? This is a helpful step for clarifying your academic integrity guidelines for this assignment, around AI use specifically as well as for other resources and tools. The standard Academic Integrity Icons in the table below can help you call out what is permissible and what is prohibited. If any steps for completing the assignment require (or expressly prohibit) AI tools, be as clear as possible in highlighting which ones, as well as why and how AI use is (or is not) permitted.

Promoting academic integrity

While inappropriate use of AI may constitute academic misconduct, it can be muddy for students to parse out what is permitted or prohibited across their courses and across various use cases. Fortunately, there are existing approaches to supporting academic integrity that apply to AI as well as to any other tool. Discuss academic integrity openly with students, early in the term and before each assignment. Purposefully design your assignments to promote integrity by using real-world formats and audiences, grading the process as well as the product, incorporating personal reflection tasks, and more. 

Learn about taking a proactive, rather than punitive, approach to academic integrity in A Positive Approach to Academic Integrity.

Step 3: Define criteria for success.

An important feature of transparent assignments is that they make clear to students how their work will be evaluated. During this TILT step, you will define criteria for a successful submission—consider creating a  rubric to clarify these expectations for students and simplify your grading process. If you intend to use AI as a substitute or augmentation for another technology, you might be able to use an existing rubric with little or no change. However, if AI use is modifying or redefining the assignment tasks, a new grading rubric will likely be needed. 

• How will you grade this assignment? What key criteria will you assess? 
• What indicators will show each criterion has been met? 
• What qualities distinguish a successful submission from one that needs improvement? 
• Will you grade students on the product only or on aspects of the process as well? For example, if you have included a reflection task as part of the assignment, you might include that as a component of the final grade.

Alongside your rubric, it is helpful to prepare examples of successful (and even unsuccessful) submissions to provide more tangible guidance to students. In addition to samples of the final product, you could share examples of effective AI prompts, reflections tasks, and AI citations. Examples may be drawn from previous student work or models that you have mocked up, and they can be annotated to highlight notable elements related to assignment criteria. 

Present and discuss your assignment.

As clear as we strive to be in our assignment planning and prompts, there may be gaps or confusing elements we have overlooked. Explicitly going over your assignment instructions—including the purpose, key tasks, and criteria—will ensure students are equipped with the background and knowledge they need to perform well. These discussions also offer space for students to ask questions and air unanticipated concerns, which is particularly important given the potential hesitance some may have around using AI tools. 

• How will this assignment help students learn key course content, contribute to the development of important skills such as critical thinking, or support them to meet your learning goals and outcomes? 
• How might students apply the knowledge and skills acquired in their future coursework or careers? 
• In what ways will the assignment further students’ understanding and experience around generative AI tools, and why does that matter?
• What questions or barriers do you anticipate students might encounter when using AI for this assignment?

As noted above, many students are unaware of the accessibility, security, privacy, and copyright concerns associated with AI, or of other pitfalls they might encounter working with AI tools. Openly discussing AI’s limitations and the inaccuracies and biases it can create and replicate will support students to anticipate barriers to success on the assignment, increase their digital literacy, and make them more informed and discerning users of technology. 

Explore available resources It can feel daunting to know where to look for AI-related assignment ideas, or who to consult if you have questions. Though generative AI is still on the rise, a growing number of useful resources are being developed across the teaching and learning community. Consult our other Teaching Topics, including AI Considerations for Teaching and Learning , and explore other recommended resources such as the Learning with AI Toolkit and Exploring AI Pedagogy: A Community Collection of Teaching Reflections.

If you need further support to review or develop assignment or course plans in light of AI, visit our Help forms to request a teaching consultation .

Using the Transparent Assignment Template

Sample assignment: ai-generated lesson plan.

In many respects, the rise of generative AI has reinforced existing best practices for assignment design—craft a clear and detailed assignment prompt, articulate academic integrity expectations, increase engagement and motivation through authentic and inclusive assessments. But AI has also encouraged us to think differently about how we approach the tasks we ask students to undertake, and how we can better support them through that process. While it can feel daunting to re-envision or reformat our assignments, AI presents us with opportunities to cultivate the types of learning and growth we value, to help students see that value, and to grow their critical thinking and digital literacy skills. 

Using the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework to plan assignments that involve generative AI can help you clarify expectations for students and take a more intentional, productive, and ethical approach to AI use in your course. 

• Step 1: Define your purpose. Think about what you want students to gain from this assignment. What are your learning goals and outcomes? Do you want students to understand the limitations of AI, see its applications in your field, or reflect on its ethical implications? The SAMR model and Bloom's Taxonomy are useful references when defining your purpose for using (or not using) AI on an assignment.
• Step 2: Define the tasks involved. L ist the steps students will take to complete the assignment. What resources and tools will they need? How will students reflect upon their learning as they proceed through each task?  What are your expectations for academic integrity?
• Step 3: Define criteria for success. Make clear to students your expectations for success on the assignment. Create a  rubric to call out key criteria and simplify your grading process. Will you grade the product only, or parts of the process as well? What qualities indicate an effective submission? Consider sharing tangible models or examples of assignment submissions.

Finally, it is time to make your assignment guidelines and expectations transparent to students. Walk through the instructions explicitly—including the purpose, key tasks, and criteria—to ensure they are prepared to perform well.

• Checklist for Designing Transparent Assignments
• TILT Higher Ed Information and Resources

Winkelmes, M. (2013). Transparency in Teaching: Faculty Share Data and Improve Students’ Learning. Liberal Education 99 (2).

Wilkelmes, M. (2013). Transparent Assignment Design Template for Teachers. TiLT Higher Ed: Transparency in Learning and Teaching. https://tilthighered.com/assets/pdffiles/Transparent%20Assignment%20Templates.pdf

Winkelmes, M., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., Weavil, K. (2016). A Teaching Intervention that Increases Underserved College Students’ Success. Peer Review.

Related Teaching Topics

Ai considerations for teaching and learning, ai teaching strategies: having conversations with students, designing assessments of student learning, search for resources.

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• Assignment Design: Is AI In or Out?

Generative AI

• Rachel Hoke

This page provides examples for designing AI out of or into your assignments. These ideas are intended to provide a starting point as you consider how assignment design can limit or encourage certain uses of AI to help students learn. CETLI is available to consult with you about ways you might design AI out of or into your assignments.

Considerations for Crafting Assignments

• Connect to your goals. Assignments support the learning goals of your course, and decisions about how students may or may not use AI should be based on these goals.
• Designing ‘in’ doesn’t mean ‘all in’. Incorporating certain uses of AI into an assignment doesn’t mean you have to allow all uses, especially those that would interfere with learning.
• Communicate to students . Think about how you will explain the assignment’s purpose and benefits to your students, including the rationale for your guidelines on AI use.

Design Out: Limit AI Use

Very few assignments are truly AI-proof, but some designs are more resistant to student AI use than others. Along with designing assignments in ways that deter the use of AI, inform students about your course AI policies regarding what is and is not acceptable as well as the potential consequences for violating these terms.

Assignments that ask students to refer to something highly specific to your course or not easily searchable online will make it difficult for AI to generate a response. Examples include asking students to:

• Summarize, discuss, question, or otherwise respond to content from an in-class activity, a specific part of your lecture, or a classmate’s discussion comments.
• Relate course content to issues that have local context or personal relevance. The more recent and specific the topic, the more poorly AI will perform.
• Respond to visual or multimedia material as part of their assignment. AI has difficulty processing non-text information.

Find opportunities for students to present, discuss their work, and respond to questions from others. To field questions live requires students to demonstrate their understanding of the topic, and the skill of talking succinctly about one’s work and research is valuable for students in many disciplines. You might ask students to:

• Create an “elevator pitch” for a research idea and submit it as a short video, then watch and respond to peers’ ideas.
• Give an in-class presentation with Q&A that supplements submitted written work. 
• Meet with you or your TA to discuss their ideas and receive constructive feedback before or after completing the assignment.

This strategy allows students to show how they have thought about the work that they’ve done and places value on their awareness of their learning. For instance, students might:

• Briefly write about a source or approach they considered but decided not to use and why.
• Discuss a personal connection they made to the learning material.
• Submit a reflection on how the knowledge or skills gained from the assignment apply to their professional practice.

Consider asking students to show the stages of their work or submit assignments in phases, so you can review the development of their ideas or work over time. Explaining the value of the thinking students will do in taking on the work themselves can help deter students’ dependence on AI. Additionally, this strategy helps keep students on track so they do not fall behind and feel pressure to use AI inappropriately. For materials handed in with the final product, it can give you a way to refer back to their process. You may ask students to:

• Submit an outline, list of sources, discussion of a single piece of data, explanation of their approach, or first draft before the final product. 
• Meet briefly with an instructor to discuss their approach or work in progress.
• Submit the notes they have taken on sources to prepare their paper, presentation, or project.

Prior to beginning an exam or submitting an assignment, you may ask students to confirm that they have followed the policies regarding academic integrity and AI. This can be particularly helpful for an assignment with different AI guidelines than others in your course. You might:

• Ask students to affirm a statement that all submitted work is their own.
• Ask students to confirm their understanding of your generative AI policy at the start of the assignment.

If you decide to limit student’s use of AI in their work:  

• Communicate the policy early, often and in a variety of ways.   
• Be Transparent. Clearly explain the reasoning behind your decision to limit or exclude the use of AI in the assignment, focusing on how the assignment relates to the course’s learning objectives and how the use of AI limits the intended learning outcomes.  

Design In: Encourage AI Use

You may find that assignments that draw upon generative AI can help your students develop the thinking and skills that are valuable in your field. Careful planning is important to ensure that the designed use of AI furthers your objectives and benefits students. Become familiar with the tasks that AI does and does not do well, and explore how careful prompting can influence its output. These examples represent only a small fraction of potential uses and aim to provide a starting point for considering assignments you might adapt for your courses.

Consider using AI tools to generate original content for students to analyze. You might ask students to:

• Compare multiple versions of an AI-generated approach to problem-solving based on the same task.
• Analyze case studies generated by AI.
• Determine and implement strategies for fact-checking AI-generated assertions to examine the value of information sources.

Generative AI may support students as they take on more advanced thinking by offering help and feedback in real time. For instance, students can:

• Input a provided prompt that guides AI to act as a tutor on an assignment. Prompts can lead the AI tutor to review material, answer questions, and help students use problem-solving strategies to find a solution.
• Ask AI to support the writing process by having it review an essay and provide feedback with explicit instructions to help identify weaknesses in an argument. Consider asking students to turn in the transcript of their discussion with the AI as part of the assignment.
• Use AI for coaching (guidance) through complex tasks like helping students without coding skills create code to analyze materials when the learning goal is data analysis rather than coding.

To support students in learning how to test their ideas, to understand what is arguable, or to practice voicing ideas with feedback, generative AI can be prompted to participate in a conversation. You might ask students to:

• Instruct AI to respond as someone unfamiliar with the course material and engage in a dialogue explaining a concept to the AI.
• Find common ground in a discussion of a controversial issue by asking AI to take a counterposition in the debate. The student could question the AI’s contradictions or identify oversimplifications while focusing on defining their own position.
• Engage with AI as it role-plays a persona like a stakeholder in a case study or a patient in a clinical conversation.

Students can engage with AI as a thought partner at the start or end stages of a project, without allowing AI to do everything. The parts of the task AI does and the parts students should do will depend on the type of learning you want them to accomplish. You might ask students to:

• Use AI to draft an initial hypothesis. Then, the student gathers, synthesizes, and cites evidence that supports or refutes the argument. Finally, the student submits the original AI output along with their finished product.
• Brainstorm with AI, using the tool to generate many possible positions or projects. Students decide which one to pursue and why.
• Develop an initial draft of code on their own, ask AI for assistance to revise or debug, and evaluate the effectiveness of AI in improving the final product.

The specific prompts a user gives to an AI tool strongly determine the quality of its output. Learning to write effective prompts can help students use AI to its fullest potential. Students might:

• Prompt AI to generate responses on a topic the student knows a lot about and evaluate how different prompt characteristics impact the quality and accuracy of AI responses.
• Research applications of prompt engineering that are emerging in their field or discipline.
• Create custom instructions for AI to help with a specific, challenging task. Share their results with peers and evaluate the effectiveness of each others’ results.

If you allow students to utilize AI in their work:

• Make it clear that students are responsible for any inaccuracies in content or citations generated by AI, and that they should own whatever positions they take in submissions.
• Set and communicate clear expectations for when and how AI contributions must be acknowledged or cited.
• Consider barriers that prevent equitable access to high-quality AI tools . S tudents may also have varying levels of AI knowledge and experience us ing the tools. CETLI can assist you in developing an inclusive plan to ensure students can complete the assignment.  

If students may use AI with proper attribution, APA , MLA , and Chicago styles each offer recommendations for how to cite AI-generated contributions.

Harvard’s metaLAB AI Pedagogy Project provides additional sample assignments designed to incorporate AI, which are free to use, share, or adapt with appropriate attribution.

CETLI Can Help

CETLI staff are available to discuss ideas or concerns related to generative AI and your teaching, and we can work with your program or department to facilitate conversations about this technology. Contact CETLI to learn more .

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Transparent Assignment Design

The goal of Transparent Assignment Design is to “to make learning processes explicit and equally accessible for all students” (Winkelmes et al., 2019, p. 1). The development of a transparent assignment involves providing students with clarity on the purpose of the assignment, the tasks required, and criteria for success as shown in the figure below. The inclusion of these elements as well as the provision of examples can be beneficial in enabling your students to do their best work!

Example A: Sociology 

Example B: Science 101 

Example C: Psychology

Example D: Communications

Authors of Examples A-D describe the outcomes of their assignment revisions

Example E: Biology

Discussion Questions (about Examples A-E)

Example F: Library research Assignment

Example G: Criminal Justice In-Class activity

Example H: Criminal Justice Assignment

Example I: Political Science Assignment

Example J: Criteria for Math Writing

Example K – Environmental History

Example L – Calculus

Example M – Algebra

Example N – Finance

Transparent Assignments Promote Equitable Opportunities for Students’ Success Video Recording

Transparent Assignment Design Faculty Workshop Video Recording

• Transparent Assignment Template  for instructors (Word Document download)
• Checklist for Designing Transparent Assignments
• Assignment Cues  to use when designing an assignment (adapted from Bloom’s Taxonomy) for faculty
• Transparent Equitable Learning Readiness Assessment for Teachers
• Transparent Assignment Template for students  (to help students learn to parse assignments also to frame a conversation to gather feedback from your students about how to make assignments more transparent and relevant for them)
• Measuring Transparency: A Learning-focused Assignment Rubric  (Palmer, M., Gravett, E., LaFleur, J.)
• Transparent Equitable Learning Framework for Students  (to frame a conversation with students about how to make the purposes, tasks and criteria for class activities transparent and relevant for them)
• Howard, Tiffiany, Mary-Ann Winkelmes, and Marya Shegog. “ Transparency Teaching  in the Virtual Classroom: Assessing the Opportunities and Challenges of Integrating Transparency Teaching Methods with Online Learning.” Journal of Political Science Education, June 2019.
• Ou, J. (2018, June), Board 75 :  Work in Progress: A Study of Transparent Assignments and Their Impact on Students in an Introductory Circuit Course  Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Palmer, M. S., Gravett, E. O., & LaFleur, J. (2018).  Measuring transparency: A learning‐focused assignment rubric.  To Improve the Academy, 37(2), 173-187. doi:10.1002/tia2.20083
• Winkelmes, M., Allison Boye and Suzanne Tapp, ed.s. (2019).  Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership. Stylus Publishing.
• Humphreys, K., Winkelmes, M.A., Gianoutsos, D., Mendenhall, A., Fields, L.A., Farrar, E., Bowles-Terry, M., Juneau-Butler, G., Sully, G., Gittens, S. Cheek, D. (forthcoming 2018). Campus-wide Collaboration on Transparency in Faculty Development at a Minority-Serving Research University. In Winkelmes, Boye, Tapp, (Eds.),  Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership.
• Copeland, D.E., Winkelmes, M., & Gunawan, K. (2018).  Helping students by using transparent writing assignments.  In T.L. Kuther (Ed.), Integrating Writing into the College Classroom: Strategies for Promoting Student Skills, 26-37. Retrieved from the  Society for the Teaching of Psychology website.
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann, Matthew Bernacki, Jeffrey Butler, Michelle Zochowski, Jennifer Golanics, and Kathryn Harriss Weavil. “A Teaching Intervention that Increases Underserved College Students’ Success.”Peer Review (Winter/Spring 2016).
• Transparency and Problem-Centered Learning. (Winter/Spring 2016) Peer Review vol.18, no. 1/2.b
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann.  Small Teaching Changes, Big Learning Benefits.”  ACUE Community ‘Q’ Blog, December, 2016.
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann.  “Helping Faculty Use Assessment Data to Provide More Equitable Learning Experiences.”  NILOA Guest Viewpoints. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, March 17, 2016.
• Gianoutsos, Daniel, and Mary-Ann Winkelmes.“Navigating with Transparency: Enhancing Underserved Student Success through Transparent Learning and Teaching in the Classroom and Beyond.” Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Association of Developmental Educators (Spring 2016).
• Sodoma, Brian.“The End of Busy Work.” UNLV Magazine 24,1 (Spring 2016): 16-19.
• Cook, Lisa and Daniel Fusch.  One Easy Way Faculty Can Improve Student Success.”  Academic Impressions (March 10, 2016).
• Head, Alison and Kirsten Hosteller.  “Mary-Ann Winkelmes: Transparency in Teaching and Learning,”  Project Information Literacy, Smart Talk Interview, no. 25.  Creative Commons License 3.0 :  2 September 2015.
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann, et al. David E. Copeland, Ed Jorgensen, Alison Sloat, Anna Smedley, Peter Pizor, Katharine Johnson, and Sharon Jalene.  “Benefits (some unexpected) of Transparent Assignment Design.”   National Teaching and Learning Forum, 24, 4 (May 2015), 4-6.
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann.  “Equity of Access and Equity of Experience in Higher Education.”  National Teaching and Learning Forum, 24, 2 (February 2015), 1-4.
• Cohen, Dov, Emily Kim, Jacinth Tan, Mary-Ann Winkelmes, “A Note-Restructuring Intervention Increases Students’ Exam Scores.”  College Teaching vol. 61, no. 3 (2013): 95-99.
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann.”Transparency in Teaching: Faculty Share Data and Improve Students’ Learning.” Liberal Education Association of American Colleges and Universities (Spring 2013).
• Winkelmes, Mary-Ann.  “Transparency in Learning and Teaching: Faculty and students benefit directly from a shared focus on learning and teaching processes.”   NEA Higher Education Advocate (January 2013): 6 – 9.
• Bhavsar, Victoria Mundy. (2020). A Transparent Assignment to Encourage Reading for a Flipped Course, College Teaching, 68:1, 33-44, DOI:  10.1080/87567555.2019.1696740
• Bowles-Terry, Melissa, John C. Watts, Pat Hawthorne, and Patricia Iannuzzi. “ Collaborating with Teaching Faculty on Transparent Assignment Design .” In Creative Instructional Design: Practical Applications for Librarians, edited by Brandon K. West, Kimberly D. Hoffman, and Michelle Costello, 291–311. Atlanta: American Library Association, 2017.
• Leuzinger, Ryne and Grallo, Jacqui, “ Reaching First- Generation and Underrepresented Students through Transparent Assignment Design .” (2019). Library Faculty Publications and Presentations. 11.  https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/lib_fac/11
• Fuchs, Beth, “ Pointing a Telescope Toward the Night Sky: Transparency and Intentionality as Teaching Techniques ” (2018). Library Presentations. 188.  https://uknowledge.uky.edu/libraries_present/188
• Ferarri, Franca; Salis, Andreas; Stroumbakis, Kostas; Traver, Amy; and Zhelecheva, Tanya, “ Transparent Problem-Based Learning Across the Disciplines in the Community College Context: Issues and Impacts ” (2015).NERA Conference Proceedings 2015. 9.  https://opencommons.uconn.edu/nera-2015/9
• Milman, Natalie B.  Tips for Success: The Online Instructor’s (Short) Guide to Making Assignment Descriptions More Transparent . Distance Learning. Greenwich  Vol. 15, Iss. 4,  (2018): 65-67. 3
• Winkelmes, M. (2023).  Introduction to Transparency in Learning and Teaching.  Perspectives In Learning, 20 (1). Retrieved from  https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/pil/vol20/iss1/2
• Brown, J., et al. (2023). Perspectives in Learning: TILT Special Issue, 20 (1). Retrieved from  https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/pil/vol20/iss1/
• Winkelmes, M. (2022). “Assessment in Class Meetings: Transparency Reduces Systemic Inequities.” In Henning, G. W., Jankowski, N. A., Montenegro, E., Baker, G. R., & Lundquist, A. E. (Eds.). (2022). Reframing Assessment to Center Equity: Theories, Models, and Practices. Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Citation : TILT Higher Ed © 2009-2023 by Mary-Ann Winkelmes . Retrieved from https://tilthighered.com/

This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .

Artificial Intelligence and Assignment Design

Generative ai assignments.

There are both academic and practical reasons you may choose to incorporate generative AI assignments into your course. For example, you may believe that AI will be a skill needed in the students’ future careers in your field. Perhaps you see AI as a tool to help students deepen their understanding of and engagement with your content. You may see the introduction of AI into your classroom as a way to open a conversation about its ethical and academic implications. Integrating AI ironically allows instructors to think deeply about how to design assignments that cannot be easily generated by AI alone to deter plagiarism and cheating. This guide comes from the perspective that you are open to developing AI assignments.

Note, it is critical to develop AI policies for your course along with policies for specific AI assignments.

Considerations for Developing an AI Assignment

Alignment with your course goals.

In the development of AI assignments, the primary consideration is whether the use of AI will help your students achieve the learning goals of the course. Ask yourself, does this assignment help student gain skills and knowledge central to your course and field? Furthermore, consider whether the assignment is engaging enough to warrant incorporating AI. Are you asking students to go above and beyond the AI-generated content? An impactful assignment will challenge students to transform, expand upon, correct, or critique the information and content generated by AI or learning about themselves in relationship to AI. Educational pedagogy expert Derek Bruff gives further insight into how to think about AI assignments as they relate to course design in his blog post about AI and writing assignments .

Guidelines for Use

If you integrate AI into your assignments, be sure to discuss your expectations with your students. It is essential that they understand why you have decided to allow AI in the course and its role in their learning. Furthermore, students can be engaged in wider conversations about AI and its personal impact on their lives. The University of Calgary has developed a set of recommendations of how to start these conversations. One strategy is writing a code of conduct that emphasizes critical thinking and sets guardrails of proper use. You can provide a prewritten list of guidelines or work with the students from scratch by posing questions about AI and learning.

For example, the class may have guidelines such as:

• We will only use AI to help our intellectual development, not replace it.
• We will be transparent in our use of AI.
• We will not submit AI generated text without attribution.
• We will follow guidelines of when AI is appropriate to use.

Assignment Mechanics

Detailed instructions for an AI assignment will raise the chances for a successful learning experience. Students are not familiar with the processes of this novel type of intellectual work, and thinking through the different facets of the activity will help you to execute and evaluate the assignment confidently. Consider the following questions:

• Are you allowing ample time to complete the assignment considering it is a new tool for students?
• Is it better to do the assignment together in class or out of class?
• Have you practiced using the technology together?
• How should AI be cited? Are there specific steps for showing how the original AI text is changed?
• What kind of prompts are allowed? What functions can AI be used for?
• How will you provide feedback on their use of AI?

AI Literacy

Both you and your students should have a level playing field when it comes to understanding generative AI. You cannot count on students to understand the pitfalls and limitations of AI or even how to use the tools. There are existing resources on AI literacy developed specifically for students that can be a starting point. This library guide from the University of Arizona instructs students on AI, plus there is a companion guide for instructors as well.

Ethical Concerns

There are ethical issues to using AI beyond questions of plagiarism, copyright and academic integrity that should be considered. First, to minimize threats to the privacy of your students and yourself, personal information should not be shared. To dive deeper into privacy concerns, speak with students about the implications of AI services using our data to train their tools.

Second, students may not have equal access to the internet or sufficient funds for subscriptions to AI tools. Be sure to suggest several different AI tools and confirm that students are able to access at least one tool without paying for it. Not all students may take to generative AI equally and will not have the skills to architect effective prompts for your discipline or type of assignment. You can support them by modeling prompt generation or forming groups in class that can work together with AI.

Finally, for instructors who do allow AI for learning, there should be considerations for students who do not want to use it on ethical grounds. This could be solved by making AI assignments low-stakes or optional.

Types of Generative AI Assignments

Below are some general ideas of how to incorporate AI into your course. We encourage you to seek out examples from your discipline or related to the core skills of your course. Some resources worth exploring are ChatGPT asssignments to use in your classroom today (an open source book from the University of Central Florida) and a publication on coding and generative AI by an international group of computer science instructors. Instructors may also wish to leverage generative AI to help with routine tasks and lesson planning .

Brainstorming Ideas and Defining Concepts

Generative AI excels at summarizing content and explaining concepts. Warning to students, it is not necessarily 100% correct!

• Users can ask AI to brainstorm research questions. “What are some examples of bank failures due to fractional reserve banking ?” Or, “What are some of the major events of the Cold War?”
• Users can ask AI for clarification of concepts or terms they don’t understand.  “Explain fractional reserve banking in simple terms. ” Or, “What are the Federalist papers and why are they important?”
• Instructors can ask for resources or ideas of how to teach students content.   “Provide an explanation of fractional reserve banking that discusses the pros and cons of its use .” Or, “What are some exercises to do in the classroom to teach the lifecycle of a butterfly?”

Writing Assistance

While it is possible to use generative AI to correct an entire essay, students can be instructed to prompt AI to provide limited feedback on specific aspects of their writing. Prompts could be limited in scope. For example, students can ask AI to:

• Rate the clarity of an argument “How well did I explain X? ” Or, “Does this writing contain all of the standard sections of a case study ?”
• Suggest alternatives “Rewrite the conclusion to better summarize the content.” Or, “What is another way to explain this idea?”
• Comment on writing mechanics “Review the sentence structure in this essay.” Or, “Check this essay for passive voice.”
• Provide advice for improvement “List the common grammar mistakes in the essay and provide an explanation of the errors.” Or, “How can I make this writing more upbeat?”

Collaborative Writing

One popular assignment helps instructors show why writing for yourself is important intellectual work. Students read an AI-generated essay and grade it with a rubric. As a class the students discuss its strengths and weaknesses. As a follow-up students can submit a revised essay. In one Yale course, the instructor told students to ask ChatGPT to write its own version of a writing prompt after the students had completed an assignment so they could compare their writing against it.

Another approach to collaboration is to ask AI to write a first draft of an assignment. Students then improve it by doing independent research to double-check the AI content and refining (or rejecting) the AI arguments. Students should record both the questions they asked and the generated text. Students can also be asked to write summaries describing what they learned from the AI search and what they changed. The SPACE framework is a powerful model for organizing these types of writing assignments; the article details the cycle of prompting AI, evaluating its output, and rewriting AI generated content.

Arguably, the greatest strength of generative AI tools may be their ability to write code. Computer scientists are especially concerned about assignments in entry-level programming classes. The way coding is taught may change over time due to AI, but there are short-term strategies that incorporate AI but demand student input. 

• AI could be asked to generate small snippets of code that students integrate into a larger programming project. Students test, debug and refine the code.
• After completing a coding assignment, students prompt AI to write a different implementation of the problem and analyze which is more efficient and why.
• Instructors or students write faulty code and use ChatGPT to generate test cases and/or to fix the errors. 
• Instructors take advantage of AI to generate more coding assignments and review questions for exams.

Two researchers from UC San Diego published the findings of a study about the attitudes of computer scientists to generative AI and possible directions for teaching coding in the future.

ChatGPT and other generative AI tools do not produce expository content only. They are also able to generate content in many creative genres, often with laughable results ( “Write a pop song in the style of Shakespeare” ) The breadth of the kinds of writing generative AI can mimic might provide the chance for humans to use generative AI to spark creativity in themselves. Student might ask AI to describe the life in the Middle Ages from the perspective of a midwife as inspiration to write a modern version, or as background information for writing in another genre. Generative AI can help instructors deliver content in new ways, for example introducing games into teaching. Instructors might ask AI to develop trivia questions for exam review or a game of 20 questions as an in-class activity.

Generative AI can be a coach for learning that supports both instructors and students. Students can easily get more information about what they don’t understand. AI can be an agent for adaptive learning allowing students to “pass” certain learning objectives and get additional practice on concepts and skills they haven’t mastered. By the same token, it can assist instructors who need to provide additional assistance to students and are pressed for time to find resources. Instructors can get ideas for teaching a skill or subject with activity descriptions and lesson plans. AI can generate practice problems or review questions for exam prep, which frees up time for instructors for other class prep.

There are also positive gains in equity when generative AI is used in a tutoring setting. A neurodiverse student may find conversations with a bot to be non-judgmental and less stressful when needing help. Non-native speakers can ask for word and concept definitions to level up their understanding of course content and context. The review and tutoring capabilities of AI can help all students to practice concepts and receive feedback on their progress.

Looking Ahead

Incorporating generative AI into education is not without peril. Students’ reliance on AI content could potentially lead to losing skills in academic writing. There is the risk that students might mistakenly believe that AI is inherently better at developing ideas and expressing information; leaving students uncomfortable adding their own voice to writing. Without training on how to check the validity of AI content and conduct independent research, students may miss out on how to evaluate sources and compare ideas.

Like it or not, at this moment it lands on educators to design courses and assignments to mitigate these risks and to have hard and timely conversations with students. It may feel like AI is encroaching on teaching and learning, but we should remember that there are many aspects of teaching that are as important as delivering content. These are skills that only human instructors can perform, such as

• Providing real-time feedback on complex tasks
• Grading or producing subjective or substantive work
• Providing social or emotional support 
• Teaching complex, interconnected concepts
• Engaging in personal interactions

The future of teaching may increasingly focus on those skills that our students need to make sense of their world, engage with others productively and make connections across disciplines and concepts.

General Resources for AI Assignments

A Teacher’s Guide to Prompt ChatGPT , Andrew Herft

AI in the Classroom , UC Riverside