assignment options for students

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. 

Attending a conference?

Checkout if mcgraw hill will be in attendance:.

• About PDK International
• About Kappan
• Permissions
• About The Grade
• Writers Guidelines
• Upcoming Themes
• Artist Guidelines
• Subscribe to Kappan

Select Page

To engage students, give them meaningful choices in the classroom

By Frieda Parker, Jodie Novak, Tonya Bartell | Oct 1, 2017 | Feature Article

It’s important to give students influence over how and what they learn in the classroom. But not all choices are equal. Teachers should structure learning scenarios that equip students with opportunities to strengthen their autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Giving student real choices in the classroom — having to do with the material they study, the assignments they complete, the peers with whom they work, and so on — can boost their engagement and motivation, allow them to capitalize on their strengths, and enable them to meet their individual learning needs. But, like most teaching strategies, the structuring of choices for students can go very well, and it can go very badly — the nuances make all the difference.

Teachers need to understand how individuals and groups of students are likely to respond to any given opportunity to make consequential choices about the goals, activities, and experiences they wish to pursue in the classroom. To illustrate, we describe three cases in which high school mathematics teachers presented their students with choices. (Although these three vignettes feature secondary math classrooms, we argue that their lessons can generalize to other settings and subject areas.) We begin with the case of Ms. R, who found that when she gave her students a specific choice to make, she saw noticeably improved engagement in learning. Next, we describe the case of Ms. C, who provided a similar choice to her students but was disappointed with their response. We then discuss the ways in which students’ feelings determined how they responded to the given choices, and we describe a third case, which illustrates how teachers can structure choices that are likely to support student engagement.

The Case of Ms. R – Choice improving student engagement

Once a week, Ms. R gave students in her Algebra I class a choice of activities to work on. On these “work days,” as students called them, Ms. R offered a set of three to four activities. Each student could select the activity that featured the skill that they thought they needed to work on the most. Before implementing these work days, Ms. R was concerned that students might not use their time wisely, so she made sure to give them plenty of work to do, including supplemental practice problems.

Initially, when she introduced the work days, students found it difficult to choose an activity. Ms. R believed this was because students had little experience making choices in school, and they were in the habit of letting their teachers make all the decisions. Thus, she made it a priority to teach them, explicitly, how to choose an appropriate activity.

By the third week, students were comfortable selecting activities and were productive in their work. Ms. R was pleasantly surprised to observe that her students spent more time helping each other and even policing each other’s behavior, calling out peers whose behavior was distracting or who weren’t being productive. Overall, she found that students knew what they needed to work on and when they needed help, and they used their time accordingly. This meant students spent more time on-task and asked for her help less often. As a result, Ms. R. was able to spend more time checking on students’ progress and helping those who genuinely needed her assistance. Ms. R was happy to learn she could trust students to make positive choices.

The Case of Ms. C – Choice not improving student engagement

In her Algebra I class, Ms. C offered a choice activity that appeared to similar to the one that Ms. R offered, only the result was quite different. During a unit on inequalities, she presented students with four problem sets (each consisting of eight problems), each one pegged to a certain level of difficulty. They should each choose one or two problems from two of the four levels, she explained, advising students to choose problems based on their self-assessment of their readiness for each level.

By the end of class, Ms. C was disappointed with her students. Most were treating the problems like busywork, rushing through them without giving them much thought. Further, most students picked problems from the easiest two levels, even though Ms. C knew that some of them were ready to work at levels three and four.

What makes choices engaging? Autonomy, competence, and relatedness Judging by the research literature on choice in the classroom, itǯs not unusual to see the very different outcomes experienced by Ms. R and Ms. C — some studies show that choice positively influences student motivation and learning (e.g., Assor, Kaplan, & Roth, 2002), while others indicate that choice has either no or even a negative effect (e.g.,D’Ailly, 2004). To explain these conflicting outcomes, psychologists Idit Katz and Avi Assor (2006) have argued that what matters most isn’t the kind of choice given to students but, rather, how students perceive the choice provided to them: When students associate feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness with choice, then choice is most likely to result in beneficial outcomes, such as student engagement.

Students feel autonomous when they understand the value or relevance of a task, particularly if they believe that the task aligns with their values, interests, and goals. It comes not just from participating in the process of choosing but, rather, from having a sense that the choice is personally meaningful. Students must see real differences in the importance or relevance of the choices at hand, and they must find at least one option to be worth choosing. In short, while Ms. R and Ms. C each gave students a choice of tasks, there was something about the set of choices that Ms. R created that made her students feel that those choices were meaningfully different. Evidently, Ms. C’s students did not feel this way.

Students feel competent when they believe they know what to do to be successful and feel capable of mastering challenges. To engender competence, students must perceive choosing the task and doing the selected work as appropriately difficult. When people are confronted with too many choices or believe the selection process is too complex, they opt for an easier choice method such as choosing a default, choosing randomly, choosing not to choose, or letting someone else choose for them. Teachers, then, must make the selection process appropriate for students in terms of the number of choices and the ways in which students are expected to choose.

Students feel competent when they believe they know what to do to be successful and feel capable of mastering challenges.

Ms. R provided only three to four choices, she was explicit with her students that they choose activities they felt would best address their learning needs, and she made a point of providing explicit instruction in how to make good choices. In contrast, Ms. C told students to choose two out of four problem levels and then one to two problems out of eight problems in each level. This required two stages of choice, and it wasn’t clear that students knew how to make a good choice at either of those stages. It seem likely that they were overwhelmed by the range of choices at hand, so they opted for the easiest choices they could make.

The other part of engendering competence is that students must be able to choose tasks that are appropriately challenging. That is, possible tasks should not all be too easy or too hard. In Ms. R’s case, students appeared able to find tasks that engaged them and that they could successfully complete on their own or with help from peers or Ms. R. The problems in Ms. C’s packet may have been similarly appropriate but perhaps due to the high cognitive demand of choosing from among 32 problems, most students did not find problems best suited for them.

Relatedness

A sense of relatedness stems from feeling close to people or a sense of belonging in a group. Choice can influence student’s feelings of relatedness differently depending on their beliefs. Students with more collectivist beliefs value relationships and making contributions to group efforts and can see individual choice as a threat to group harmony. Students with more hierarchical beliefs value the role of authority figures and can see choice as a threat to acceptance from people in authority, such as teachers. People with individualistic beliefs value personal goals over group goals and tend to value choice as a means of demonstrating independence and expressing individuality. However, choice can undermine a sense of relatedness for students with individualistic beliefs if they perceive their choices could lead to rejection, humiliation, or teasing. Ms. R gave students choices that did not seem to interfere with, and possibly supported, students’ sense of relatedness as they worked more closely on “work days” than on other days. But students’ sense of relatedness in Ms. C’s classroom is not clear because she provided the choice for only one day, and students didn’t appear to perceive the choice as supporting autonomy or competence.

Learning from choice outcomes

So, how might Ms. C learn from her disappointing experience in providing choices to her students? First, she could have conjectured why students might not have associated feelings of autonomy, competence, or relatedness with the choice she provided them. Reasoning as described above, she might hypothesize that the process of choice was too complex, and students might not have had good strategies for choosing appropriate problems. To check her thinking and get more ideas, Ms. C could then ask students why they responded to the worksheet as they did. For instance, she might ask:

• Why did you pick only levels one and two?
• Why did you do only one problem at each level instead of two?
• Did you find the problems helpful to do? Why or why not?
• What might have made this activity better for you to practice solving problems involving inequalities?

Students are often quite insightful about their learning needs. In talking with students, teachers might find that the fundamental structure of the choice they provided the students was not conducive for students’ feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. However, like Ms. R, teachers might find that changing the choice structure is not necessary; instead what is needed is helping students understand the rationale for the choice and how to productively make choices. And, of course, improving choice may involve some combination of changing the choice structure along with educating students about how to use choice to learn.

Students who associate a choice with feeling autonomous, competence, and in relationship with others are more likely to be engaged with the learning.

Next, we provide one more case to show a different choice structure, how this choice related to students’ feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and the type of student engagement choice can foster. Student engagement can sometimes be garnered by providing relatively small and simple choices to students. The case of Ms. H illustrates this.

The Case of Ms. H — Small choice, big engagement

Every day, Ms. H prepared two warm-up problems, each with the same mathematical content but situated in different contexts — for example, one problem might have to do with hiking and the other with flying. The two contexts were always on the board, and during the first minute of class, students were allowed to vote for the one that interested them. In order to make sure that they could vote, some students began to arrive to class early, and overall, the number of students who were late went down. The motivation to select a context carried over into actually doing the warm-up problem. According to Ms. H, all students began to actively engage in doing the warm-up, which had not occurred before she began offering students the choice of contexts.

After the first week of voting for the warm-up problem context, students asked Ms. H if they could suggest contexts. Ms. H agreed and students put suggestions in a hat, from which she drew contexts for the next day’s warm-up. After two weeks of doing the warm-up voting, Ms. H tried to stop, but students loudly objected, so Ms. H continued providing the choice. Tardies continued to remain low, and student engagement in the warm-up problems remained high.

The success of Ms. H’s warm-up context choice can be explained by its influence on students’ feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Students’ feelings of autonomy were likely fostered because most students found at least one context meaningful to them, which was probably strengthened when students began suggesting contexts. Students likely felt competent making this choice because choosing was relatively simple, and the actual warm-up problem appeared appropriately challenging for most students, as indicated by their level of engagement. The fact that students worked productively on whichever warm-up problem was selected suggests the choice did not interfere with students’ sense of relatedness. Thus, Ms. H’s experience demonstrates that relatively simple choices can foster the key feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and consequently even simple choices can improve student engagement.

Teachers have described to us any number of ways in which they provide choice to students, including giving them opportunities to choose work partners, seating arrangements, homework problems, assessment problems, and ways of being assessed.

Like Ms. R, many teachers are initially concerned that students will not respond well to having choices. Ms. R addressed her concern by making sure to have plenty of work available for students to do; other teachers make it a point to be explicit with students about why they are providing choices, and they request student feedback on whether they value the choice. Whatever strategy they choose, though, teachers can increase the likelihood their students will value choice by analyzing how students associate feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness with the choice provided them. While this might take some trial and error, finding the right choice structures for students can be a powerful tool for fostering student engagement.

Assor, A., Kaplan, H., & Roth, G. (2002). Choice is good but relevance is excellent: Autonomy affecting teacher behaviors that predict students’ engagement in learning. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 72, 261–278.

D’Ailly, H. (2004). The role of choice in children’s learning: A distinctive cultural and gender difference in efficacy, interest, and effort. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 36, 17–29.

Katz, I. & Assor, A. (2007). When choice motivates and when it does not. Educational Psychology Review, 19 (4), 429-444.

Citation:  Parker, F., Novak, J, & Bartell, T. (2017). To engage students, give them meaningful choices in the classroom.   Phi Delta Kappan 99  (2), 37-41.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Frieda Parker

FRIEDA PARKER is an assistant professor of mathematics at University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colo.

Jodie Novak

JODIE NOVAK is an assistant professor of mathematics at University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colo.

Tonya Bartell

TONYA BARTELL is an associate professor of mathematics education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.

Related Posts

Mapping America’s teacher evaluation plans under ESSA  

September 23, 2019

How teachers view their own professional status: A snapshot

February 24, 2020

Even as our nation seeks unity, let there be dissent in schools

July 2, 2021

Going to scale with teacherpreneurs 

April 1, 2014

Recent Posts

Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

• Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
• Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

• What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

• What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that he or she will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

• define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
• describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
• explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
• illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
• summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
• trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
• research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

• compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
• contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
• apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
• cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
• relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

• assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
• prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
• evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
• support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
• synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
• analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
• argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

• What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
• In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove her point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
• What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
• How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, he or she still has to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

• Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
• The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and she already knows everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality she or he expects.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

• spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
• use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
• use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
• get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

Using choice boards just makes sense! Every individual student represents a unique blend of strengths, interests, needs, experiences, and background knowledge, so it stands to reason that a one-size-fits-all approach to assessment is not ideal. Giving students some choice in how they are assessed is beneficial in a number of ways.

We likely all know somebody who refers to themself as a person who “doesn’t test well.” This usually means that they struggle with memorizing facts or that they succumb to the pressure of timed tests. What is our goal, as educators? Are we trying to create an assessment that only a percentage of our students can master or are we trying to get a true snapshot of each child’s understanding of the content that we taught?

Further, it becomes far too easy to place a premium on students’ testing achievement.  I would argue that our true task is to ensure that they are able to retain and apply the knowledge that has been learned.

Let’s explore some options that allow our students to do just that. After that, check out some specific choice board examples that are available for download .

What are Choice Boards?

Choice Boards are typically presented as a grid of various teacher-approved activities that students can use to demonstrate mastery of content.  The idea is to offer enough variety so that every student might select an option that plays to his strengths and interests.  The number and types of options are up to you, the educator.  I have typically seen Choice Boards used in one of three ways:

1) Single-Session Activities

The teacher offers a Choice Board with a number of short tasks that either ask students to explore new material or apply previously-learned content. These tasks are completed during a class session.

2) Multiple Activities

In this option, a Choice Board is given at the beginning of a unit and students are tasked with completing a number of relatively short activities by the due date.  Unlike the Single Session Choice Board, these activities are typically completed outside of class.

3) End of Unit Assessment

The teacher offers a number of larger project options that would take the place of a traditional end-of-unit test.  The student is typically given a couple of weeks or more to select and work on the project on their own time.  Each option should allow students to thoroughly demonstrate mastery of content.

Why should I use Choice Boards?

When students have some choice in how they will demonstrate their knowledge, they are likely to be more motivated.  Having choice may also reduce fear and anxiety.  For example, one student might love the opportunity to write and perform a song or speech that demonstrates what she has learned, while another student might prefer a less performance-based option such as creating a PowerPoint presentation.  

Above all else, I want to endorse the idea that solid Choice Board options will demonstrate student mastery of content at least as well, if not better, than a multiple-choice quiz or test.

How do I grade Choice Board submissions?

This is an important question, and one that I get almost every time that I introduce Choice Boards during a training.  With such a variety of activities, it might seem like you are comparing apples to oranges. The best way to ensure that you are accurately assessing your students’ mastery of content is to have a rubric.  Be sure to share the rubric up front with students.  It might include things such as:

• Content – How well does the submission demonstrate that a student learned the content?  You might be looking for use of key vocabulary or integration of particular concepts.
• Accuracy – Does the submission reflect a correct understanding of content?
• Completeness – Is the submission thorough in its portrayal of what was learned in a given academic unit? Were all requirements for the project met?
• Creativity – You may choose to reward students who put a creative spin on a project or who seem to step out of their comfort zone during the course of the project.
• Punctuality – Was the assignment submitted on time?

Have fun creating choice board options that will engage your students and allow them to play to their strengths.

Happy teaching.

Featured Resources 

Keep your whole class engaged:

Make Assessment Engaging & Meaningful!

Get the whole class moving:

Search Posts by Topic:

• Columbia University in the City of New York
• Office of Teaching, Learning, and Innovation
• University Policies
• Columbia Online
• Academic Calendar
• Resources and Technology
• Instructional Technologies
• Teaching in All Modalities

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.”

This website uses cookies to identify users, improve the user experience and requires cookies to work. By continuing to use this website, you consent to Columbia University's use of cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with the Columbia University Website Cookie Notice .

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

FREE Poetry Worksheet Bundle! Perfect for National Poetry Month.

How I Use Choice Boards to Increase Student Engagement

Because we all know one-size-fits-all lessons don’t exist.

One of the most common challenges that teachers face is planning engaging, hands-on lessons that are accessible to all students. Teachers know that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. That’s why I’m a big fan of the choice board. Choice boards can be implemented for any grade level or subject. They typically include a wide array of activities of varying difficulty. As a result, all students, regardless of learning style, are able to get the skills and learning they need.

Here’s how I use choice boards in my classroom.

The setup of a choice board is simple. First of all, I plan at least nine activities that can be done at stations or centers around the classroom. Each activity is then assigned a point value based on the level of difficulty or work required to complete it. Students must acquire a certain number of points by doing activities of their choice.

When I introduce the activity to the class, I distribute the choice board and review directions orally as students follow along. Next, I walk around the room, visiting each station and explaining each activity. That way, students know where to find them and what to do. At each station, I place another set of directions, this one specific to that activity. I have found this  extremely helpful, especially for students who need information presented in smaller chunks. Of course, everything that students need to complete the activity is waiting for them at the station. This really helps avoid confusion.

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

Choice boards should offer a variety of activities that appeal to all learning styles.

Another benefit of using choice boards for inclusion classes is that modifications can easily be made without students feeling different or separated from their peers. A professional development seminar that my school held on UDL (Universal Design for Learning) really resonated with me. CAST, a nonprofit education research and development organization, defines UDL as “a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.” This approach really motivated me to be extra diligent in creating lessons that were accessible to all learners.

Here are examples of activities from the choice board shown above:

Choice boards require a decent amount of preparation, but their outcomes are worth the extra time.

The students are learning, but they are also having fun while doing it. When students get to select the activities they do, they are involved in their own learning. This sets them up for success, and as a result the classroom becomes a safe haven for them. Consequently, they develop a positive attitude toward education.

Students also appreciate a teacher who they know is willing to go the extra mile for them. They can tell when a teacher thought outside of the box while planning assignments. If you’re looking to create an engaging, hands-on lesson that allows students to take ownership of their own learning, then give choice boards a try. 

Have you tried choice boards in the classroom? Come and share your experiences in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. 

Plus, how I engage middle and high school readers by offering more student choice.

You Might Also Like

This Free Poetry Worksheet Bundle Is Perfect for Your Poetry Unit

Haiku, limerick, ode, and more! Continue Reading

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256

Ohio State nav bar

The Ohio State University

• BuckeyeLink
• Find People
• Search Ohio State

Creating and Adapting Assignments for Online Courses

Online teaching requires a deliberate shift in how we communicate, deliver information, and offer feedback to our students. How do you effectively design and modify your assignments to accommodate this shift? The ways you introduce students to new assignments, keep them on track, identify and remedy confusion, and provide feedback after an assignment is due must be altered to fit the online setting. Intentional planning can help you ensure assignments are optimally designed for an online course and expectations are clearly communicated to students.  

When teaching online, it can be tempting to focus on the differences from in-person instruction in terms of adjustments, or what you need to make up for. However, there are many affordances of online assignments that can deepen learning and student engagement. Students gain new channels of interaction, flexibility in when and where they access assignments, more immediate feedback, and a student-centered experience (Gayten and McEwen, 2007; Ragupathi, 2020; Robles and Braathen, 2002). Meanwhile, ample research has uncovered that online assignments benefit instructors through automatic grading, better measurement of learning, greater student involvement, and the storing and reuse of assignments. 

In Practice

While the purpose and planning of online assignments remain the same as their in-person counterparts, certain adjustments can make them more effective. The strategies outlined below will help you design online assignments that support student success while leveraging the benefits of the online environment. 

Align assignments to learning outcomes. 

All assignments work best when they align with your learning outcomes. Each online assignment should advance students' achievement of one or more of your specific outcomes. You may be familiar with  Bloom's Taxonomy,  a well-known framework that organizes and classifies learning objectives based on the actions students take to demonstrate their learning. Online assignments have the added advantage of flexing students' digital skills, and Bloom's has been revamped for the digital age to incorporate technology-based tasks into its categories. For example, students might search for definitions online as they learn and remember course materials, tweet their understanding of a concept, mind map an analysis, or create a podcast. 

See a  complete description of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy  for further ideas. 

Provide authentic assessments. 

Authentic assessments call for relevant, purposeful actions that mimic the real-life tasks students may encounter in their lives and careers beyond the university. They represent a shift away from infrequent high-stakes assessments that tend to evaluate the acquisition of knowledge over application and understanding. Authentic assessments allow students to see the connection between what they're learning and how that learning is used and contextualized outside the virtual walls of the learning management system, thereby increasing their motivation and engagement. 

There are many ways to incorporate authenticity into an assignment, but three main strategies are to use  authentic audiences, content, and formats . A student might, for example, compose a business plan for an audience of potential investors, create a patient care plan that translates medical jargon into lay language, or propose a safe storage process for a museum collection.  

Authentic assessments in online courses can easily incorporate the internet or digital tools as part of an authentic format. Blogs, podcasts, social media posts, and multimedia artifacts such as infographics and videos represent authentic formats that leverage the online context. 

Learn more about  authentic assessments in Designing Assessments of Student Learning . 

Design for inclusivity and accessibility. 

Adopting universal design principles at the outset of course creation will ensure your material is accessible to all students. As you plan your assignments, it's important to keep in mind barriers to access in terms of tools, technology, and cost. Consider which tools achieve your learning outcomes with the fewest barriers. 

Offering a variety of assignment formats is one way to ensure students can demonstrate learning in a manner that works best for them. You can provide options within an individual assignment, such as allowing students to submit either written text or an audio recording or to choose from several technologies or platforms when completing a project. 

Be mindful of how you frame and describe an assignment to ensure it doesn't disregard populations through exclusionary language or use culturally specific references that some students may not understand. Inclusive language for all genders and racial or ethnic backgrounds can foster a sense of belonging that fully invests students in the learning community.  

Learn more about  Universal Design of Learning  and  Shaping a Positive Learning Environment . 

Design to promote academic integrity online. 

Much like incorporating universal design principles at the outset of course creation, you can take a proactive approach to academic integrity online. Design assignments that limit the possibilities for students to use the work of others or receive prohibited outside assistance.  

Provide   authentic assessments  that are more difficult to plagiarize because they incorporate recent events or unique contexts and formats. 

Scaffold assignments  so that students can work their way up to a final product by submitting smaller portions and receiving feedback along the way. 

Lower the stakes  by providing more frequent formative assessments in place of high-stakes, high-stress assessments. 

In addition to proactively creating assignments that deter cheating, there are several university-supported tools at your disposal to help identify and prevent cheating.  

Learn more about these tools in  Strategies and Tools for Academic Integrity in Online Environments . 

Communicate detailed instructions and clarify expectations. 

When teaching in-person, you likely dedicate class time to introducing and explaining an assignment; students can ask questions or linger after class for further clarification. In an online class, especially in  asynchronous  online classes, you must anticipate where students' questions might arise and account for them in the assignment instructions.  

The  Carmen course template  addresses some of students' common questions when completing an assignment. The template offers places to explain the assignment's purpose, list out steps students should take when completing it, provide helpful resources, and detail academic integrity considerations.  

Providing a rubric will clarify for students how you will evaluate their work, as well as make your grading more efficient. Sharing examples of previous student work (both good and bad) can further help students see how everything should come together in their completed products. 

Technology Tip

Enter all  assignments and due dates  in your Carmen course to increase transparency. When assignments are entered in Carmen, they also populate to Calendar, Syllabus, and Grades areas so students can easily track their upcoming work. Carmen also allows you to  develop rubrics  for every assignment in your course.  

Promote interaction and collaboration. 

Frequent student-student interaction in any course, but particularly in online courses, is integral to developing a healthy learning community that engages students with course material and contributes to academic achievement. Online education has the inherent benefit of offering multiple channels of interaction through which this can be accomplished. 

Carmen  Discussions   are a versatile platform for students to converse about and analyze course materials, connect socially, review each other's work, and communicate asynchronously during group projects. 

Peer review  can be enabled in Carmen  Assignments  and  Discussions .  Rubrics  can be attached to an assignment or a discussion that has peer review enabled, and students can use these rubrics as explicit criteria for their evaluation. Alternatively, peer review can occur within the comments of a discussion board if all students will benefit from seeing each other's responses. 

Group projects  can be carried out asynchronously through Carmen  Discussions  or  Groups , or synchronously through Carmen's  Chat function  or  CarmenZoom . Students (and instructors) may have apprehensions about group projects, but well-designed group work can help students learn from each other and draw on their peers’ strengths. Be explicit about your expectations for student interaction and offer ample support resources to ensure success on group assignments. 

Learn more about  Student Interaction Online .

Choose technology wisely. 

The internet is a vast and wondrous place, full of technology and tools that do amazing things. These tools can give students greater flexibility in approaching an assignment or deepen their learning through interactive elements. That said, it's important to be selective when integrating external tools into your online course.  

Look first to your learning outcomes and, if you are considering an external tool, determine whether the technology will help students achieve these learning outcomes. Unless one of your outcomes is for students to master new technology, the cognitive effort of using an unfamiliar tool may distract from your learning outcomes.  

Carmen should ultimately be the foundation of your course where you centralize all materials and assignments. Thoughtfully selected external tools can be useful in certain circumstances. 

Explore supported tools 

There are many  university-supported tools  and resources already available to Ohio State users. Before looking to external tools, you should explore the available options to see if you can accomplish your instructional goals with supported systems, including the  eLearning toolset , approved  CarmenCanvas integrations , and the  Microsoft365 suite .  

If a tool is not university-supported, keep in mind the security and accessibility implications, the learning curve required to use the tool, and the need for additional support resources. If you choose to use a new tool, provide links to relevant help guides on the assignment page or post a video tutorial. Include explicit instructions on how students can get technical support should they encounter technical difficulties with the tool. 

Adjustments to your assignment design can guide students toward academic success while leveraging the benefits of the online environment.  

Effective assignments in online courses are:  

Aligned to course learning outcomes 

Authentic and reflect real-life tasks 

Accessible and inclusive for all learners 

Designed to encourage academic integrity 

Transparent with clearly communicated expectations 

Designed to promote student interaction and collaboration 

Supported with intentional technology tools 

• Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty (e-book)
• Making Your Course Accessible for All Learners (workshop reccording)
• Writing Multiple Choice Questions that Demand Critical Thinking (article)

Learning Opportunities

Conrad, D., & Openo, J. (2018).  Assessment strategies for online learning: Engagement and authenticity . AU Press. Retrieved from  https://library.ohio-state.edu/record=b8475002~S7 

Gaytan, J., & McEwen, B. C. (2007). Effective online instructional and assessment strategies.  American Journal of Distance Education ,  21 (3), 117–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923640701341653   

Mayer, R. E. (2001).  Multimedia learning . New York: Cambridge University Press.  

Ragupathi, K. (2020). Designing Effective Online Assessments Resource Guide . National University of Singapore. Retrieved from  https://www.nus.edu.sg/cdtl/docs/default-source/professional-development-docs/resources/designing-online-assessments.pdf  

Robles, M., & Braathen, S. (2002). Online assessment techniques.  Delta Pi Epsilon Journal ,  44 (1), 39–49.  https://proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eft&AN=507795215&site=eds-live&scope=site  

Swan, K., Shen, J., & Hiltz, S. R. (2006). Assessment and collaboration in online learning.  Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks ,  10 (1), 45.  

TILT Higher Ed. (n.d.).  TILT Examples and Resources . Retrieved from   https://tilthighered.com/tiltexamplesandresources  

Tallent-Runnels, M. K., Thomas, J. A., Lan, W. Y., Cooper, S., Ahern, T. C., Shaw, S. M., & Liu, X. (2006). Teaching Courses Online: A Review of the Research.  Review of Educational Research ,  76 (1), 93–135.  https://www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/stable/3700584  

Walvoord, B. & Anderson, V.J. (2010).  Effective Grading : A Tool for Learning and Assessment in College: Vol. 2nd ed . Jossey-Bass.  https://library.ohio-state.edu/record=b8585181~S7

Related Teaching Topics

Designing assessments of student learning, strategies and tools for academic integrity in online environments, student interaction online, universal design for learning: planning with all students in mind, related toolsets, carmencanvas, search for resources.

• Visit the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
• Apply to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
• Give to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Search Form

• Implementing Student Choice within an Assignment

Presenter: Amanda Gonzales, College of Business

Contact info: [email protected]

Students are allowed to make meaningful choices about the content or format of a class assignment.

The potential benefits of offering student choice include enhancing student engagement and motivation, increasing alignment with students’ interests and career plans, fostering intellectual curiosity and a love of lifelong learning, and encouraging students to approach assignments as a process of discovery and exploration, rather than “checking the boxes”. In my class, it also fosters inclusivity for students with a wide variety of career interests instead of focusing assignments on the most common career paths. The practice is guided by research and principles in the area of self-determination theory.

To implement the principles in self-determination theory, some instructors provide students with a “menu” of possible activities to choose from to demonstrate mastery of course objectives. That felt overwhelming to me, so I decided as a first step to incorporate student choice within my assignments.

• Think carefully about the goal(s) of an assignment and how it helps students achieve course objectives. In my assignment, I want students to demonstrate an ability to (a) leverage prior knowledge and brainstorming techniques to identify the accounting issues present in a situation, (b) analyze and justify how accounting regulations apply to the situation, and (c) articulate ideas with clarity, conciseness, and professionalism.
• Consider where you can offer students meaningful choice within your established goals. Rather than provide students with a standard fact pattern as a prompt, I allow students to choose a role (e.g., audit team for a large U.S. company or tax associate helping individuals prepare income taxes), a feasible situation they would face in the role, and a type of written documentation they would prepare in the role (e.g., a memo or a letter). This allows them to tailor the assignment to their interests (and perhaps future career plans) while still demonstrating their mastery of the assignment objectives.
• Don’t allow too much choice. It would be overwhelming for students if I gave a wide-open prompt to write about a solution to any accounting issue. In addition, that level of choice might not result in students’ achieving the goals for the assignment. When I introduce the assignment, I am intentional in telling students that assignment choice can be exciting, but also overwhelming, and I offer to meet with them to process ideas.
• Be prepared to offer thoughtful feedback. Students could be vulnerably sharing a piece of who they are with their assignment choices. An instructor responding to students’ chosen topics in a curious, positive way can further foster their desires to be lifelong learners.

Students provided the following feedback after my first semester implementing student choice within assignments:

“I liked having the freedom to choose what topics I wanted to research, I think this helped keep me engaged in class and in the work I was doing outside of class - honestly I have not stopped talking to my roommate about [chosen topic] since I started researching it…”

“I thought that it was open-ended enough to leave a lot of room for discovery which was overwhelming at first but more accurately simulates the real world.”

“I enjoyed the ability to pick perspectives and topics that align with the type of work I am interested in. With that flexibility can come the burden of having too broad of a scope to select a topic from. You are very supportive and helped me select a topic which I appreciate.”

• Teaching Strategies and Techniques
• Motivating Students

Spring 2021 Symposium Video Poster Sessions

• Exercising Empathy and Social Research Practices
• How to Help Your First-Generation Students Succeed
• Humanizing Your Course: Creating an Inclusive Classroom with a "Liquid Syllabus"
• Impacts of Cognitive Load on Student Learning
• Motivations For Learning: A Culturally Relevant Approach
• Providing Essential Student Resources in a Robust Orientation Module
• Using Accessibility Checker in Canvas and Office
• Using Movie Analysis to Promote Inclusive Learning
• We are TRIO

• Get started with computers
• Learn Microsoft Office
• Apply for a job
• Improve my work skills
• Design nice-looking docs
• Getting Started
• Smartphones & Tablets
• Typing Tutorial
• Online Learning
• Basic Internet Skills
• Online Safety
• Social Media
• Zoom Basics
• Google Docs
• Google Sheets
• Career Planning
• Resume Writing
• Cover Letters
• Job Search and Networking
• Business Communication
• Entrepreneurship 101
• Careers without College
• Job Hunt for Today
• 3D Printing
• Freelancing 101
• Personal Finance
• Sharing Economy
• Decision-Making
• Graphic Design
• Photography
• Image Editing
• Learning WordPress
• Language Learning
• Critical Thinking
• For Educators
• Translations
• Staff Picks
• English expand_more expand_less

Google Classroom  - Creating Assignments and Materials

Google classroom  -, creating assignments and materials, google classroom creating assignments and materials.

Google Classroom: Creating Assignments and Materials

Lesson 2: creating assignments and materials.

/en/google-classroom/getting-started-with-google-classroom/content/

Creating assignments and materials

Google Classroom gives you the ability to create and assign work for your students, all without having to print anything. Questions , essays , worksheets , and readings can all be distributed online and made easily available to your class. If you haven't created a class already, check out our Getting Started with Google Classroom lesson.

Watch the video below to learn more about creating assignments and materials in Google Classroom.

Creating an assignment

Whenever you want to create new assignments, questions, or material, you'll need to navigate to the Classwork tab.

In this tab, you can create assignments and view all current and past assignments. To create an assignment, click the Create button, then select Assignment . You can also select Question if you'd like to pose a single question to your students, or Material if you simply want to post a reading, visual, or other supplementary material.

This will bring up the Assignment form. Google Classroom offers considerable flexibility and options when creating assignments.

Click the buttons in the interactive below to become familiar with the Assignment form.

This is where you'll type the title of the assignment you're creating.

Instructions

If you'd like to include instructions with your assignment, you can type them here.

Here, you can decide how many points an assignment is worth by typing the number in the form. You can also click the drop-down arrow to select Ungraded if you don't want to grade an assignment.

You can select a due date for an assignment by clicking this arrow and selecting a date from the calendar that appears. Students will have until then to submit their work.

In Google Classroom, you can sort your assignments and materials into topics. This menu allows you to select an existing topic or create a new one to place an assignment under.

Attachments

You can attach files from your computer , files from Google Drive , URLs , and YouTube videos to your assignments.

Google Classroom gives you the option of sending assignments to all students or a select number .

Once you're happy with the assignment you've created, click Assign . The drop-down menu also gives you the option to Schedule  an assignment if you'd like it to post it at a later date.

You can attach a rubric to help students know your expectations for the assignment and to give them feedback.

Once you've completed the form and clicked Assign , your students will receive an email notification letting them know about the assignment.

Google Classroom takes all of your assignments and automatically adds them to your Google Calendar. From the Classwork tab, you can click Google Calendar to pull this up and get a better overall view of the timeline for your assignments' due dates.

Using Google Docs with assignments

When creating an assignment, there may often be times when you want to attach a document from Google Docs. These can be helpful when providing lengthy instructions, study guides, and other material.

When attaching these types of files, you'll want to make sure to choose the correct setting for how your students can interact with it . After attaching one to an assignment, you'll find a drop-down menu with three options.

Let's take a look at when you might want to use each of these:

• Students can view file : Use this option if the file is simply something you want your students to view but not make any changes to.
• Students can edit file : This option can be helpful if you're providing a document you want your students to collaborate on or fill out collectively.
• Make a copy for each student : If you're creating a worksheet or document that you want each student to complete individually, this option will create a separate copy of the same document for every student.

Using topics

On the Classwork tab, you can use  topics to sort and group your assignments and material. To create a topic, click the Create button, then select Topic .

Topics can be helpful for organizing your content into the various units you teach throughout the year. You could also use it to separate your content by type , splitting it into homework, classwork, readings, and other topic areas.

In our next lesson , we'll explore how to create quizzes and worksheets with Google Forms, further expanding how you can use Google Classroom with your students.

/en/google-classroom/using-forms-with-google-classroom/content/

• Course Design

Giving Students a Choice in Assignments Can Boost Creativity and Motivation

• September 19, 2013
• Elizabeth Betsy Lasley, EdD

Teaching to students’ strengths and interests can promote creative and critical thinking. But requesting creative responses often engenders the exact opposite of creativity. “Just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it.” “How many words does it need to be?” “What should I write about to get a good grade?” “I’m not creative.” Often these comments are accompanied with sighs, groans, or no responses at all (in the case of online students), indicating just how much students resist when asked to be creative. And these responses are even more prevalent in required and prerequisite courses. So how do we overcome the resistance and encourage creative ideas and thinking from our students?

Creativity has been described as the inclination to generate or recognize and communicate ideas and possibilities when solving problems. Students become creatively motivated when allowed to solve problems, find novel and varied stimulation, and communicate ideas and/or values. I’ve designed and used with some success a semester-long personal preference project assignment. To illustrate how these work, I’ll use the assignment students complete in a required special education survey course I teach.

Personal preference project assignment—tiered assignment:

Students may select one of the projects listed below or generate their own project concepts. They may work independently or in small groups. The project must be completed and presented to the class at the end of the course. The content of the project must reflect the course learning outcomes as well as professionally specified standards. Topics that may be considered include IDEA and No Child Left Behind, differentiated instruction, collaboration, standardized assessment, advocates for students with disabilities, inclusion vs. resource instructional settings, parent rights and responsibilities, response to intervention, or any topic that addresses the course’s learning outcomes. Students submit their topic choices for approval in the second week of class.

Possible project selection:

• Research paper (one per student)
• Classroom debate (four to six students—two or three pro/two or three con)
• Website analysis and Web page construction (one per student)
• Literature group (two books)—(three or four students per group)
• Podcast (two students)
• Documentary with oral or written interviews (one or two students)
• Simulated YouTube video (one per student)
• Differentiated instruction unit (one or two students for each project)
• Open for student suggestion (one or two students)

Project requirements: Other projects details are presented in course syllabus materials.

Presentations: Presentation dates are determined by class lottery. Dates for the presentations are placed in a paper bag and each student draws his or her date from the bag. Presenters must conduct a 30-minute interactive lesson. The common thread that provides continuity among the projects is the required focus on course content. Each presentation demonstrates the results of individual or group research through a student-created, innovative, interactive, learner-centered format.

Due dates: Because this is a term-long project, specific due dates that update project progress and student self-reflections are scheduled throughout the semester.

Evaluation: Project evaluation rubrics and a presentation rubric are included in course syllabus materials.

Two key features add to the success of this assignment. Student progress needs to be monitored and grading criteria need to be clear. Creative juices flow when there is a structure that students understand and can follow. Criteria for each product or performance is necessary to reduce student stress, meet learning outcomes, and increase productivity. Each project has a separate rubric tailored to fit its unique characteristics. Criteria are then discussed during a scheduled office meeting to confirm project clarity, expectations, and student ideas. The instructor and student(s) determine if adjustments to the pre-established rubric and project concept are necessary at that time.

Dan Pink, in his 2006 book A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future, indicates that autonomy, mastery, and purpose are qualities that motivate learners and result in achievement. Isn’t this what we desire for our students? When students are asked to interpret, construct, and demonstrate their own concepts or ideas regarding specific course concepts from a selection of product or performance options, content retention, commitment, motivation, and creativity increase. At least that’s what’s happened in my courses, and those outcomes are consistent with the principles of effective course design.

Reprinted from Promoting Student Choice. The Teaching Professor , 26.7 (2012): 3.

Stay Updated with Faculty Focus!

Get exclusive access to programs, reports, podcast episodes, articles, and more!

• Opens in a new tab

Welcome Back

Username or Email

Remember Me

Already a subscriber? log in here.

• Help Center
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• Submit feedback
• Announcements
• Organize and communicate with your class
• Create assignments

Create an assignment

This article is for teachers.

When you create an assignment, you can post it immediately, save a draft, or schedule it to post at a later date. After students complete and turn in their work, you can grade and return it to the students.

Open all | Close all

Create & post assignments

When you create an assignment, you can:

• Select one or more classes

Select individual students

Add a grade category, add a grading period, change the point value, add a due date or time, add a topic, add attachments, add a rubric.

• Turn on originality reports

Go to classroom.google.com  and click Sign In.

Sign in with your Google Account. For example,  [email protected] or [email protected] .  Learn more .

• Enter the title and any instructions.

You can continue to edit and customize your assignment. Otherwise, if you’re ready, see below to post, schedule, or save your assignment .

Select additional classes

Assignments to multiple classes go to all students in those classes.

• Create an assignment (details above).

Unless you’re selecting multiple classes, you can select individual students. You can’t select more than 100 students at a time.

• Click a student's name to select them.

Use grade categories to organize assignments. With grade categories, you and your students can see the category an assignment belongs to, such as Homework or Essays . Teachers also see the categories on the Grades page.

For more information on grade categories, go to Add a grade category to posts or Set up grading .

To organize assignments and grades into your school or district’s grading structure, create grading periods, such as quarters or semesters.

• From the menu, select a grading period.

Tip: Before adding a grading period to an assignment, create a grading period for the class first. Learn how to create or edit grading periods .

You can change the point value of an assignment or make the assignment ungraded. By default, assignments are set at 100 points.

• Under Points , click the value.
• Enter a new point value or select Ungraded .

By default, an assignment has no due date. To set a due date:

• Click a date on the calendar.
• To create a topic, click Create topic and enter a topic name.
• Click a topic in the list to select it.

Note : You can only add one topic to an assignment.

Learn more about how to add topics to the Classwork page .

• Create an assignment.

• Important: Google Drive files can be edited by co-teachers and are view-only to students. To change these share options, you can stop, limit, or change sharing .

• To add YouTube videos, an admin must turn on this option. Learn about access settings for your Google Workspace for Education account .
• You can add interactive questions to YouTube video attachments. Learn how to add interactive questions to YouTube video attachments .

• Tip: When you attach a practice set to an assignment, you can't edit it.

• If you see a message that you don’t have permission to attach a file, click Copy . Classroom makes a copy of the file to attach to the assignment and saves it to the class Drive folder.
• Students can view file —All students can read the file, but not edit it.
• Students can edit file —All students share the same file and can make changes to it.

Note : This option is only available before you post an assignment.

Use an add-on

For instructions, go to Use add-ons in Classroom

For instructions, go to Create or reuse a rubric for an assignment .

For instructions, go to Turn on originality reports .

You can post an assignment immediately, or schedule it to post later. If you don’t want to post it yet, you can save it as a draft. To see scheduled and drafted assignments, click Classwork .

Post an assignment

• Follow the steps above to create an assignment.
• Click Assign to immediately post the assignment.

Schedule the assignment to post later

Scheduled assignments might be delayed up to 5 minutes after the post time.

• To schedule the same assignment across multiple classes, make sure to select all classes you want to include.
• When you enter a time, Classroom defaults to PM unless you specify AM.
• (Optional) Select a due date and topic for each class.
• (Optional) To replicate your selected time and date for the first class into all subsequent classes, click Copy settings to all .
• Click Schedule . The assignment will automatically post at the scheduled date and time.

After scheduling multiple assignments at once, you can still edit assignments later by clicking into each class and changing them individually.

Save an assignment as a draft

• Follow the steps above to create an assignment

You can open and edit draft assignments on the Classwork page.

Manage assignments

Edits affect individual classes. For multi-class assignments, make edits in each class.

Note : If you change an assignment's name, the assignment's Drive folder name isn't updated. Go to Drive and rename the folder.

Edit a posted assignment

• Enter your changes and click Save .

Edit a scheduled assignment

• Enter your changes and click Schedule .

Edit a draft assignment

Changes are automatically saved.

• Assign it immediately (details above).
• Schedule it to post at a specific date and time (details above).
• Click a class.

You can only delete an assignment on the Classwork page.

If you delete an assignment, all grades and comments related to the assignment are deleted. However, any attachments or files created by you or the students are still available in Drive.

Related articles

• Create or reuse a rubric for an assignment
• Create a quiz assignment
• Create a question
• Use add-ons in Classroom
• Create, edit, delete, or share a practice set
• Learn about interactive questions for YouTube videos in Google Classroom

Was this helpful?

Need more help, try these next steps:.

Teaching, Learning, & Professional Development Center

• Teaching Resources
• TLPDC Teaching Resources

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 .

Contact TTU

University Center for Teaching and Learning

How to create assignments for your canvas course.

• Quick Start
• Instructor Help
• Student Help

How to Create Assignments

Using assignments in Canvas provides a streamlined process for assigning homework and creating quizzes for students.  Canvas considers an ‘assignment’ to be anything that is graded, whether that be a quiz or homework assignment, and whether it’s delivered entirely online, paper-and-pencil, or is a participatory assignment with no actual deliverable.

This Quick Start guide will cover the creation of assignments where the student submits a file electronically, on paper, using an external tool such as Turnitin or Panopto , or where no submission is expected (e.g. class participation). See How to Create Tests and Quizzes for Your Canvas Course and Create and Manage Discussions for more information about using those tools as assignments.

1. In the Course Navigation menu, click the Assignments link.

2. Click “ +Assignment ” at the top right.

3. Write the assignment title and directions for students.

4. Assign the number of points available for the assignment.

5. Choose an “ Assignment Group” . Assignment groups are, in essence, a category of assignment. For more information about using Assignment Groups, see the Canvas guides regarding Assignments.

6. There are four submission types :

• No Submission: an activity where nothing will be collected from students (e.g. a participation grade)
• For the full details about the online assignment subtypes, (text entry, annotation, file upload, etc.), please see the official documentation .
• We have a recorded mini-webinar on annotation assignments, including assignment ideas, available on the Training Webinars page.
• On Paper: assignments/quizzes/activities that were written on paper and collected by the instructor
• External Tool: assignments submitted through a 3rd party tool that is integrated with Canvas, such as a textbook publisher’s website or Turnitin

7. Submission Attempts: You may allow unlimited submission attempts for Online assignments, or restrict attempts to one or more. When a student submits to an assignment they have already submitted to, the previous submission is retained as well, and the instructor may view both.

8. Group Assignments and Peer Reviews:  Assignments can be created as either a group assignment or peer review assignment.

9. Assign options- You can assign an assignment to your entire class, a specific student, and/or a section of your class. You can also set the due date and the availability dates (when your students can submit their assignment). Each section can have different due dates and availability dates.

10. If you are finished creating the assignment, click on “ Save & Publish “. If you are not finished creating the assignment, click on “ Save ” and you may come back and work on it more later without students having access to it.

Instructor Help for Assignments

Creating assignments.

• How do I create an assignment?
• How do I add a moderated assignment to be graded by multiple reviewers?
• How do I create an online assignment?
• How do I add or edit details in an assignment?
• How do I add or edit points for an assignment?
• What assignment types can I create in a course?
• How do I limit submission attempts for an assignment?
• How do I add an assignment that includes anonymous grading?
• How do I enable anonymous instructor annotations in student submissions?
• How do I import SCORM files as an assignment?
• How do I publish or unpublish an assignment as an instructor?

Managing Assignments

• How do I use the Assignments Index Page?
• Can a student resubmit Canvas assignments?
• How do I assign an assignment to everyone in a course?
• How do I assign an assignment to a course group?
• How do I assign an assignment to a course section?
• How do I assign an assignment to an individual student?
• How do I view differentiated assignments with different due dates in a course?
• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• How do I delete an assignment?
• How do I duplicate an assignment?
• How do I move or reorder an assignment?
• How do I use Direct Share to copy an assignment to another course?
• How do I use Direct Share to send an assignment to another instructor?

Creating and Managing Peer Review Assignments

• How do I create a peer review assignment?
• How do I use peer review assignments in a course?
• How do I automatically assign peer reviews for an assignment?
• How do I manually assign peer reviews for an assignment?
• How do I view student peer review comments as an instructor?

Creating External Tool Assignments

• How do I add an assignment using an external app?
• How do I create a cloud assignment with a Microsoft Office 365 file?

Using Assignment Groups

• How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• How do I create an assignment shell in an assignment group?
• How do I create rules for an assignment group?
• How do I move or reorder an assignment group?
• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?

Grading Considerations

• How do I add a grading scheme to an assignment?
• How do I download all student submissions for an assignment?
• How do I upload all student submissions for an assignment?
• How do I exclude an assignment from the course’s final grades?
• How do I give extra credit in a course?

Student Help for Assignments

• How do I view Assignments as a student?
• How do I filter assignments by type as a student?
• How do I submit an online assignment?
• How do I submit a text entry assignment?
• How do I enter a URL as an assignment submission?
• How do I submit a media file as an assignment submission?
• How do I upload a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?
• How do I upload a file from Microsoft Office 365 as an assignment submission?
• How do I know when my assignment has been submitted?
• How do I manage celebration animations in Canvas as a student?
• How do I submit a cloud assignment with Microsoft Office 365?
• How do I download assignment submissions from all my courses?
• How do I annotate a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?
• How do I use DocViewer in Canvas assignments as a student?
• How do I submit a PDF assignment with annotations in the Student app on my Android device?
• How do I add annotations to a submission in the Student app on my iOS device?

Groups and Peer

• How do I submit an assignment on behalf of a group?
• How do I know if I have a peer review assignment to complete?
• How do I submit a peer review to an assignment?
• Where can I find my peers’ feedback for peer reviewed assignments?
• How do I view the rubric for my assignment?
• How do I view the rubric for my external tool assignment?
• How do I view rubric results for my assignment?
• How do I know when my instructor has graded my assignment?
• How do I view assignment comments from my instructor?
• How do I view annotation feedback comments from my instructor directly in my assignment submission?
• How do I view my Roll Call Attendance report as a student?
• Generative AI Resources for Faculty
• Importing Grades from Canvas to PeopleSoft
• Enter and Calculate Grades in Canvas
• End-of-term Teaching Surveys
• Finals Week Assessment Strategies
• Alternative Final Assessment Ideas
• Testing Services Hours During Finals
• Not sure what you need?
• Accessibility
• Canvas and Ed Tech Support
• Center for Mentoring
• Creating and Using Video
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• General Pedagogy
• Graduate Student/TA Resources
• Remote Learning
• Syllabus Checklist
• Student Communication and Engagement
• Technology and Equipment
• Classroom & Event Services
• Assessment of Teaching
• Classroom Technology
• Custom Workshops
• Open Lab Makerspace
• Pedagogy, Practice, & Assessment
• Need something else? Contact Us
• Educational Software Consulting
• Learning Communities
• Makerspaces and Emerging Technology
• Mentoring Support
• Online Programs
• Teaching Surveys
• Testing Services
• Classroom Recordings and Lecture Capture
• Creating DIY Introduction Videos
• Media Creation Lab
• Studio & On-Location Recordings
• Video Resources for Teaching
• Assessment and Teaching Conference
• Diversity Institute
• New Faculty Orientation
• New TA Orientation
• Teaching Center Newsletter
• Meet Our Team
• About the Executive Director
• Award Nomination Form
• Award Recipients
• About the Teaching Center
• Annual Report
• Join Our Team

• Our Mission

Incorporating Choice Boards in World Language Classes

Having a say in their assignments leads students to take ownership of their work, and choice boards are a simple way to give them some control.

While I have always sought to give my students a voice in a variety of ways, prior to the pandemic, I had never incorporated choice boards into my classes. The term was unfamiliar to me; however, I was eager to explore the concept of providing a menu of assignment options. While constantly switching from fully remote to hybrid learning, I was longing for a way to spark creativity and engagement while fostering independence among my students.

In order to design a choice board, it’s essential to consider the goals of the task: What do you want your students to accomplish? What skills should they gain or strengthen? In the context of my own Spanish classes, my goals are consistently content-based and communicative. I typically aim to tap into the four modes of communication: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. I want my students to build upon their communicative skills in the target language and to expand their cultural knowledge in the process.

After solidifying your goals, first and foremost, be sure that all of the choice board options focus on a specific topic or overall theme. Hence, the choice board should ideally be introduced at the middle or end point of a unit. In addition, a choice board can contain anywhere from four to eight assignment options for students, depending on what you want them to do. For example, if you want to have your students select two separate assignments from the choice board to complete, provide six to eight total options; if students are only to choose one assignment, four to six options are more than enough.

Choosing the Right Activities

When brainstorming activity ideas to include on your choice board, consider your students, and strive to provide a variety of options. Some students may want to incorporate visual art. Others might prefer building something, and some students might gravitate to writing. Similarly, do not hesitate to integrate familiar technology tools. During the fully remote learning period, my choice board options needed to be completed digitally; therefore, I relied heavily on tools like Flipgrid, Google Docs, and Edpuzzle, to name a few.

My most recently designed choice board for my Level IV Spanish classes focused on art. After we studied Salvador Dalí’s surrealist works, Pablo Picasso’s cubist works, and muralism in Mexico, I designed a choice board at the end of the unit. I provided six options in total; students had to select one that focused on presentational speaking and one that focused on either interpersonal or presentational writing.

Presentational Speaking Options

1.   Replicate any work of art we studied by Dalí or Picasso that impacted you. Post a picture of your artwork (digitally or on paper) along with a Vocaroo recording in which you orally describe what you created and how the original work inspired you. Your work should be saved on the class’s collaborative Google Slides presentation.

2. You are the narrator behind a painting. Choose a work by Dalí or Picasso that we did not review together in class, and tell the story behind it, providing your own analysis and impression of the painting. Record your response in a video via Flipgrid.

3. Select a famous piece of American artwork. Compare and contrast it to a work of art from the Spanish-speaking world, specifically by Picasso, Dalí, or any muralist. Record your response in a video via Flipgrid.

Interpersonal/Presentational Writing Options

1.   You are the artist. Create your own original artwork (digitally or on paper) that follows either the surrealist or cubist style. In a detailed paragraph, explain why the artwork you created follows the surrealist or cubist style. Explain what you created and how it’s inspired by Dalí or Picasso. Include a picture of your artwork within the document.

2. In a Google Doc or Word document, write a formal email to your favorite artist we have studied: Dalí, Picasso, or any of the muralists. Tell the artist why you are inspired by his work, and ask any questions you have.

3. Select any mural by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, or José Clemente Orozco. In a detailed paragraph, describe how the mural addresses global challenges, and explain whether or not it is still relevant today with supporting evidence.

All of the choice board options are communication driven and culturally focused while connecting to a common theme. This allowed my students to utilize the target vocabulary we had studied over the course of the unit as well as to apply the knowledge they had gained. The choice board options prompted many of my students to step outside of their comfort zones and try something new. For example, many of my students who did not consider themselves to be artists were intrigued by the choice board activities that required them to create a work of art because they had never had such an opportunity in any other class. In addition, although my choice board options featured here require the use of technology tools, they can be easily adapted to pencil-and-paper tasks or to in-class presentations.

Overall, the most rewarding part of this process was the newfound excitement and engagement of my students. Seeing them truly own their learning was inspiring to witness. Giving them a choice about their assignments ignited their creativity in an amazing way.

• Utility Menu

GA4 Tracking Code

Gen ed writes, writing across the disciplines at harvard college.

• Types of Assignments

Gen Ed courses transcend disciplinary boundaries in a variety of ways, so the types of writing assignments that they include also often venture outside the traditional discipline-specific essays. You may encounter a wide variety of assignment types in Gen Ed, but most can be categorized into four general types: 

• Traditional academic assignments include the short essays or research papers most commonly associated with college-level assignments. Generally speaking, these kinds of assignments are "expository" in nature, i.e., they ask you to engage with ideas through evidence-base argument, written in formal prose. The majority of essays in Expos courses fall into this category of writing assignment types.  
• Less traditional academic assignments include elements of engagement in academia not normally encountered by undergraduates. 
• Traditional non-academic assignments include types of written communication that students are likely to encounter in real world situations. 
• Less traditional non-academic assignments are those that push the boundaries of typical ‘writing’ assignments and are likely to include some kind of creative or artistic component.

Examples and Resources

Traditional academic.

For most of us, these are the most familiar types of college-level writing assignments. While they are perhaps less common in Gen Ed than in departmental courses, there are still numerous examples we could examine.

Two illustrations of common types include: 

Example 1: Short Essay  Professor Michael Sandel asks the students in his Gen Ed course on Tech Ethics to write several short essays over the course of the semester in which they make an argument in response to the course readings. Because many students will never have written a philosophy-style paper, Professor Sandel offers students a number of resources—from a guide on writing in philosophy, to sample graded essays, to a list of logical fallacies—to keep in mind. 

Example 2: Research Paper In Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Cares?, a Gen Ed course co-taught by multiple global health faculty members, students write a 12–15 page research paper on a biosocial analysis of a global health topic of their choosing for the final assignment. The assignment is broken up into two parts: (1) a proposal with annotated bibliography and (2) the final paper itself. The prompt clearly outlines the key qualities and features of a successful paper, which is especially useful for students who have not yet written a research paper in the sciences. 

Less Traditional Academic

In Gen Ed, sometimes assignments ask students to engage in academic work that, while familiar to faculty, is beyond the scope of the typical undergraduate experience. 

Here are a couple of examples from Gen Ed courses: 

Example 1: Design a conference  For the final project in her Gen Ed course, Global Feminisms, Professor Durba Mitra asks her students to imagine a dream conference  in the style of the feminist conferences they studied in class. Students are asked to imagine conference panels and events, potential speakers or exhibitions, and advertising materials. While conferences are a normal occurrence for graduate students and professors, undergraduates are much less likely to be familiar with this part of academic life, and this kind of assignment might require more specific background and instructions as part of the prompt. 

Example 2: Curate a museum exhibit In his Gen Ed class, Pyramid Schemes, Professor Peter Der Manuelian's final project offers students the option of designing a virtual museum exhibit . While exhibit curation can be a part of the academic life of an anthropologist or archaeologist, it's not often found in introductory undergraduate courses. In addition to selecting objects and creating a virtual exhibit layout, students also wrote an annotated bibliography as well as an exhibit introduction for potential visitors. 

Traditional Non-academic

One of the goals of Gen Ed is to encourage students to engage with the world around them. Sometimes writing assignments in Gen Ed directly mirror types of writing that students are likely to encounter in real-world, non-academic settings after they graduate.

The following are several examples of such assignments: 

Example 1: Policy memo In Power and Identity in the Middle East, Professor Melani Cammett assigns students a group policy memo evaluating "a major initiative aimed at promoting democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)." The assignment prompt is actually structured as a memo, providing context for students who likely lack experience with the format. It also outlines the key characteristics of a good memo, and it provides extensive advice on the process—especially important when students are working in groups. 

Example 2: Letter In Loss, Professor Kathleen Coleman asks students to write a letter of condolence . The letter has an unusual audience: a mother elephant who lost her calf. Since students may not have encountered this type of writing before, Professor Coleman also provides students with advice on process, pointing to some course readings that might be a good place to start. She also suggests a list of outside resources to help students get into the mindframe of addressing an elephant. 

Example 3: Podcast  Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular in Gen Ed classes, as they are in the real world. Though they're ultimately audio file outputs, they usually require writing and preparing a script ahead of time. For example, in Music from Earth, Professor Alex Rehding asks students to create a podcast in which they make an argument about a song studied in class. He usefully breaks up the assignments into two parts: (1) researching the song and preparing a script and (2) recording and making sonic choices about the presentation, offering students the opportunity to get feedback on the first part before moving onto the second. 

Less Traditional Non-academic

These are the types of assignments that perhaps are less obviously "writing" assignments. They usually involve an artistic or otherwise creative component, but they also often include some kind of written introduction or artist statement related to the work.

The following are several examples from recently offered Gen Ed courses: 

Example 1: Movie Professor Peter Der Manuelian offers students in his class, Pyramid Schemes, several options for the final project, one of which entails creating a 5–8 minute  iMovie making an argument about one of the themes of the course. Because relatively few students have prior experience making films, the teaching staff provide students with a written guide to making an iMovie as well as ample opportunities for tech support. In addition to preparing a script as part of the production, students also submit both an annotated bibliography and an artist’s statement. 

Example 2: Calligram In his course, Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies, Professor Ali Asani asks students to browse through a provided list of resources about calligrams, which are an important traditional Islamic art form. Then they are required to "choose a concept or symbol associated with God in the Islamic tradition and attempt to represent it through a calligraphic design using the word Allah," in any medium they wish. Students also write a short explanation to accompany the design itself. 

Example 3: Soundscape In Music from Earth, Professor Alex Rehding has students create a soundscape . The soundscape is an audio file which involves layering sounds from different sources to create a single piece responding to an assigned question (e.g. "What sounds are characteristic of your current geographical region?"). Early on, as part of the development of the soundscape, students submit an artist's statement that explains the plan for the soundscape, the significance of the sounds, and the intention of the work. 

• DIY Guides for Analytical Writing Assignments

• Unpacking the Elements of Writing Prompts
• Receiving Feedback

Assignment Decoder

for Education

• Google Classroom
• Google Workspace Admin
• Google Cloud

Easily distribute, analyze, and grade student work with Assignments for your LMS

Assignments is an application for your learning management system (LMS). It helps educators save time grading and guides students to turn in their best work with originality reports — all through the collaborative power of Google Workspace for Education.

• Get started
• Explore originality reports

Bring your favorite tools together within your LMS

Make Google Docs and Google Drive compatible with your LMS

Simplify assignment management with user-friendly Google Workspace productivity tools

Built with the latest Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standards for robust security and easy installation in your LMS

Save time distributing and grading classwork

Distribute personalized copies of Google Drive templates and worksheets to students

Grade consistently and transparently with rubrics integrated into student work

Add rich feedback faster using the customizable comment bank

Examine student work to ensure authenticity

Compare student work against hundreds of billions of web pages and over 40 million books with originality reports

Make student-to-student comparisons on your domain-owned repository of past submissions when you sign up for the Teaching and Learning Upgrade or Google Workspace for Education Plus

Allow students to scan their own work for recommended citations up to three times

Trust in high security standards

Protect student privacy — data is owned and managed solely by you and your students

Provide an ad-free experience for all your users

Compatible with LTI version 1.1 or higher and meets rigorous compliance standards

Product demos

Experience google workspace for education in action. explore premium features in detail via step-by-step demos to get a feel for how they work in the classroom..

“Assignments enable faculty to save time on the mundane parts of grading and...spend more time on providing more personalized and relevant feedback to students.” Benjamin Hommerding , Technology Innovationist, St. Norbert College

Classroom users get the best of Assignments built-in

Find all of the same features of Assignments in your existing Classroom environment

• Learn more about Classroom

Explore resources to get up and running

Discover helpful resources to get up to speed on using Assignments and find answers to commonly asked questions.

• Visit Help Center

Get a quick overview of Assignments to help Educators learn how they can use it in their classrooms.

• Download overview

Get started guide

Start using Assignments in your courses with this step-by-step guide for instructors.

• Download guide

Teacher Center Assignments resources

Find educator tools and resources to get started with Assignments.

• Visit Teacher Center

How to use Assignments within your LMS

Watch this brief video on how Educators can use Assignments.

• Watch video

Turn on Assignments in your LMS

Contact your institution’s administrator to turn on Assignments within your LMS.

• Admin setup

Explore a suite of tools for your classroom with Google Workspace for Education

You're now viewing content for a different region..

For content more relevant to your region, we suggest:

Sign up here for updates, insights, resources, and more.

Jump to navigation

Digital Learning Educational Innovation Across Northwestern

Search form, alternative final assignment formats.

Tips and Tools

• Review Quick Tips for Success

Error message

Many social sciences and humanities faculty focus on a final essay as the culminating assignment of a given course. While this is what students know and expect, there are many options that also equally satisfy course learning objectives. Here, I discuss one approach to broadening the final assignment format to consider other formats, such as blog posts, websites, videos, podcasts, and presentations.

There are two potential advantages to this approach: First, encouraging students to think about the formats, even if they write an essay, promotes critical engagement with the course content and an appropriate means of communicating course content. The second is that for students who do choose the alternative format, the final product is often really strong and interesting. However, permitting alternative formats does not come without a cost, so I’ll offer some suggestions on how to structure alternative assignment formats and some context with the experiences I’ve had so far.  

Why not papers?

There is value to having a final paper for students. Often, this is a skill they have already worked to develop and it is likely one they will need in future coursework and potentially in their careers post-graduation. For many courses, a final paper makes the most sense given the course learning objectives. For example, in one of my courses, students write a series of short papers to prepare them for a final project that extends and builds upon two of these short paper proposals. In that instance, a final paper fits with the learning objectives and course design. In other courses, the learning objectives are about demonstrating understanding and application of relevant theories or an analysis of a situation using the framework developed in the course. In these cases, a paper is one option, but students could fulfill the learning objective through a number of possible paths. Additionally, multiple formats allow students to choose how they engage with the course (multiple means of expression, as it is known in Universal Design for Learning ).

Considering alternative assignment structures, i.e. allowing these multiple possible paths, comes from Universal Design for Learning and helps improve the learning environment for a variety of learners, allowing for students with varied skills to demonstrate their understanding in a way that matches their skills and interests. If your course isn’t explicitly about teaching and improving writing skills, allowing students to get creative in how they engage with the material can increase their interest in the content and spur deeper learning. Interestingly, although the modal assignment selected by my students has been a final paper, students really enjoy having the option to select the assessment and it seems that they take more ownership of a project format they chose.  

Who should consider the alternative structure? What should they choose?

Any course that has a final capstone paper or project is a good contender for the alternative structure [ Note: I’m not sure how well this would work for a midterm project if you’re considering something like a podcast as an option simply for timing reasons ]. There are infinitely many possible structures or products students can turn in, so instructors can decide what are possible opportunities. I limit the choices but include a statement that students can contact me if they’d like to pursue a format not mentioned. The key in successfully structuring the elements is that the final paper is sizeable enough that an interested student would want to undertake the effort of an alternative structure (e.g. if the final paper is quite short, it might seem more efficient to just write the paper).

The biggest challenge is selecting other options that (a) the instructor feels are relevant/suitable to the topic, prompt requirements, and course goals and (b) ‘similar’ enough in size that no student would be advantaged or disadvantaged by any format. For example, allowing a large poster might make it hard for students to perform well on the final because they aren’t able to include enough depth or complexity in the format relative to a paper given the course goals and prompt requirements. Typical options I offer are a paper, interactive graphic, podcast, webpage, video, or presentation with voiceover. Your course learning objectives will help determine which of these make sense for your format.

In my syllabus, I mention each type and provide information and resources on how to conduct it:

"You can choose to do a final research paper or you can select a multimedia project, such as making a podcast, a webpage, a video, or a presentation with voiceover. Be as creative as you’d like – we will have a proposal workshop in class to go over the options in greater detail as the deadline draws near. Some helpful links are included below.

• Knight Lab (podcasts and interactive timeline):  https://knightlab.northwestern.edu
• Webpages:  http://sites.northwestern.edu
• Video:   https://digitallearning.northwestern.edu/opportunities/record-myself-lightboard , booking info here: http://northwestern.libcal.com/booking/mudd_lbs

Providing these choices seems to make the options seem more accessible to students and knowing that we have a workshop helps encourage them to be creative.  

How do I structure the assignment?

Structuring the assignment is crucial for success. The options must be perceived as equal by students or they won’t be interested in the other formats. I include the list of other options and describe each of them. I’ve varied the final paper length over different courses and it seems that papers over 10 pages seem large enough that students are willing to consider other options.

It's also important to be very explicit about exactly what students need to do in the assignment. This makes structuring the rubric clearer and easier (see below on rubrics) and lets students know what to expect.

I also ask that students include a short, two-page description of their alternative assignment. This can dissuade students because if they’re writing a short paper, why not write the full paper. But, it provides an ‘insurance policy’ in a sense for students so that they have the opportunity to explain why and how they made the choices they did for the assignment. For example, I had a student in one class create a video that was very good but the additional paper alongside it helped add additional depth to why and how the different elements were included and how they related to the course and prompt. Students write two short papers earlier in the course that provide a draft template for this description. Thus, while additional work for them, it was a minimal add-on to the overall final assignment.  

How do I GRADE the assignment?

To grade final assignments, you must have a good rubric [If you’re at Northwestern, Searle is really helpful for this]. It must relate to each of the different requirements of the assignment prompt and provide a clear means for evaluation. I use the same rubric for all assignments (creating separate rubrics would be overly onerous to manage and coordinate, particularly with Canvas. I use one rubric and one submission for the assignment for all students).

Within the rubric, in addition to the prompt requirements, I also have a category around execution of the project. This helps equalize the different projects because they can be evaluated on how well they met the prompt objectives and well they were executed (for example, it may be that the paper writing is evaluated here or the ability of the presentation to capture and communicate the underlying issue). I enjoy an excellent paper; however, I also enjoy a student who did something that was really creative and relevant to the material. I want to ensure that my rubric allows me to essentially award points for ‘degree of difficulty’ while still evaluating how well the student fulfilled the prompt. It is crucial that any one format not be privileged over any other.  

So what? Is it really worth it?

One of my goals as an instructor is for students to take an interest in their own learning. I’ve found that even allowing the option for students to choose the final assignment format increases student interest, even when most students still select the paper. Additionally, entertaining thoughts about how they might try an alternative format encourages students to engage more actively with the material than when reacting to a prompt where they’re thinking of ways to fit what they know to the assignment requirements.

The small number of students who do choose the alternative format are typically those who are interested in and engaged in the material and want to try something different, either because they have a different set of skills from hobbies or outside coursework they would like to apply, or because they want to try something different.

I don’t have hard data on learning outcomes for this (yet), but students who select the alternative assignment often (but not always) do it exceptionally well. One student made a podcast to rival This American Life, one made a website that expertly addressed issues of school reform, another made a video surrounding societal gender norms through performance. The times projects have been less successful were when, early on in the process, I wasn’t as explicit about the requirements of the prompt and didn’t connect the elements to the rubric. In short, when structured properly, alternative assignment formats can be exceptional.  

Tips for success

• Consider limiting formats to just one or two options at first.
• Announce alternative format early to pique interest.
• Discuss alternative options in class (I mention how a video we watch would be a fitting final project, for example).
• Have students float the suggestions by you (this helps improve the quality of all projects, regardless of format.
• Be sure the paper is sufficiently large enough that it seems like ‘similar’ work to consider other formats.
• Make a very specific prompt with all requirements explicitly stated.
• Consider asking students to include a short writeup on their assignment so they can check they’ve addressed the prompt—this can take any number of forms, either in-process through check-ins or by including an additional summary with the final project.
• Have a VERY clear rubric.
• Include an ‘execution’ component of rubric to equalize across formats.

You're signed out

Sign in to ask questions, follow content, and engage with the Community

• Canvas Instructor
• Instructor Guide

How do I create an online assignment?

• Subscribe to RSS Feed
• Printer Friendly Page
• Report Inappropriate Content

in Instructor Guide

Note: You can only embed guides in Canvas courses. Embedding on other sites is not supported.

Community Help

View our top guides and resources:.

To participate in the Instructurer Community, you need to sign up or log in:

Literacy Lines

Home » Literacy Lines » Planning Effective Writing Assignments

Planning Effective Writing Assignments

When you ask students to complete a writing assignment, how often do you receive something back that does not match what you were expecting from your students? Part of the problem is that students may not have enough information about your expectations. Often the directions for a writing task lack specificity, such as the following examples:

• Write a composition that compares and contrasts…
• Write a short research report about…
• Use information from these three sources to write an answer to this question…

With broad assignments like these, students are understandably not sure about the purpose for writing the piece, how long it should be, how much and what kind of content they should include, and what supports might be available. They also may be unsure of how the writing will be graded.

One of the recommendations from the Writing next research report (Graham & Perin, 2007) is for teachers to provide specific product goals:

“Setting product goals involves assigning students specific, reachable goals for the writing they are to complete. It includes identifying the purpose of the assignment (e.g., to persuade) as well as characteristics of the final product. Specific goals in the studies reviewed included (a) adding more ideas to a paper when revising, or establishing a goal to write a specific kind of paper and (b) assigning goals for specific structural elements in a composition. Compared with instances in which students were simply given a general overall goal, these relatively simple procedures resulted in a positive effect size, and the average effect was strong. Overall, assigning students goals for their written product had a strong impact on writing quality.” (p. 17)

To help students successfully complete content writing tasks, follow these steps when planning a writing assignment:

• Determine the writing objective. For example, is the objective to have students process their content knowledge, or perhaps to deepen their understanding and reflect on what they have learned? Do you want to use the writing task to assess students’ content learning?
• Generate an appropriate writing task, choosing the best type of writing for the task – informational, opinion/argument, or narrative.
• Set clear goals. Identify the TAP (task audience, purpose). Clearly state your expectations for the length of the piece, the form, and any other requirements.
• Provide scaffolds. For instance, can you show models or examples? What other scaffolds can you provide to help some students or all students?
• Plan for feedback and revision. Is this part of the writing process necessary and reasonable, given the writing objective and task? If so, what tools can be used to provide feedback?

Writing Assignment Guide (WAG)

One of the instructional suggestions in the Keys to Content Writing professional development course is for teachers to use a WAG to plan writing assignments and communicate expectations to students. The information in a WAG should be shared with students so they know the requirements and the support that will be provided. A blank copy of a WAG planning template is shown below, followed by a description of each part of the WAG.

• Writing Task: The teacher describes the writing task, including the type of writing (informational, opinion/argument, narrative, or a combination).
• Audience: The teacher identifies the audience for the writing piece. This might be the teacher, peer students, or an authentic audience.
• Purpose: The teacher identifies the purpose for writing the piece, such as to reinforce content learning, to develop writing skills, or a specific purpose related to an authentic audience.
• Length: The teacher shares requirements for the length of the writing piece by identifying a range in number of words, sentences, paragraphs, or pages.
• Directions & Requirements: The teacher presents directions for the writing task and shares specific requirements for the content or text structure. If there are requirements for use and citation of sources, these are included, as well as information about grading. 
• Writing Supports: The teacher identifies scaffolds and supports that are provided for some or all of the students.

The WAG example below includes questions (in red) for teachers to assist them as they complete a WAG. Several classroom examples follow.

Sharing a WAG with Students

Teachers should share the information with students so they understand the requirements for a writing assignment and the support teachers will provide. Teachers should base the format used to share the WAG details on the age and skills of the students. They can share a copy of the WAG, or they can modify the information in a more student-friendly layout. Two examples are provided below.

Using a WAG As a Guide for Grading

One of the questions students ask is, “How will my writing piece be graded?” The Length and Directions and Requirements parts of the WAG can be used to communicate to students what they should check for when they are reviewing and revising their writing. Did they meet requirements for length, text structure and formatting, use of vocabulary? Did they include all the required content? When assessing and grading a writing piece, the teacher can include requirement details in a scoring rubric, enabling them to make grading decisions based on a set criteria rather than a more general reaction to the quality of the student’s writing.

References:

• Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve the writing of adolescents in middle and high schools – A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for  Excellent Education.
• Sedita, J. (2024). Keys to content writing, 3rd Edition. Rowley, MA: Keys to Literacy.
• Joan Sedita

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe by Email

• Adolescent Literacy
• Brain and Literacy
• Close Reading
• College and Career Ready
• Common Core
• Complex Text
• Comprehension Instruction
• Content Literacy
• Decoding and Fluency
• Differentiated Fluency
• Differentiated Instruction
• Digital Literacies
• Disciplinary Literacy
• Elementary Literacy
• English Language Learners
• Grammar and Syntax
• High School Literacy
• Interventions
• Learning Disabilities – Dyslexia
• Middle School Literacy
• MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support)
• PK – Grade 3 Literacy
• Professional Development
• RTI (Response to Intervention)
• Special Education
• Teacher Education
• Teacher Evaluation
• Text Structures
• Uncategorized
• Vocabulary Instruction
• Writing Instruction

Posts by Author

• Becky DeSmith
• Donna Mastrovito
• Brad Neuenhaus
• Shauna Cotte
• Sue Nichols
• Amy Samelian
• Colleen Yasenchock
• Maureen Murgo
• melissa powers
• Sande Dawes
• Stephanie Stollar

ACCESSING KEYS TO LITERACY PD DURING SCHOOL CLOSURES

We are closely monitoring the covid-19 situation and the impact on our employees and the schools where we provide professional development., during this time period when onsite, face-to-face training and coaching is not possible, we offer multiple options for accessing our literacy pd content and instructional practices., if you are a current or new partner, explore our website or contact us to learn more about:.

• Live virtual training, coaching
• Facilitated and asynchronous online courses
• Free webinars and resources

[email protected] 978-948-8511

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

And #11 Successful Students Learn Independently

16 Dealing With Assignments

Understanding your first assignment.

The number of assignments you will receive in a semester often surprises students. For some students, figuring out how to manage assignments is a new experience. For others who have had assignments in the past, the amount of work needed to complete assignments at the college level is what is unexpected. Most of the assignments you will receive will take longer than one session of study to complete. You will likely need to work on your assignment over several days or weeks. In this section, we will provide you with advice on how to understand the requirements of your assignment, and how to manage and track the tasks you will need to complete. We will provide you with some time management tips and an assignment tracker to try.

Assignment Terms

Assignment questions, outlines and marking schemes, breaking down large assignments.

How to breakdown assignments into tasks

• Understand the assignment: Read the assignment instructions carefully, and make sure you understand what is required. If you do not understand what you need to do, ask your professor as soon as possible.
• Create a task list: What are the smaller tasks you need to do to complete this assignment? Smaller tasks are activities like conducting research at the library or setting up group meetings for a group project.
• Create a timeline: Create a timeline that includes all the tasks that need to be completed. Consider how much time you will need to complete that task and when you will work on it. Set due dates for each task.
• Brainstorm ideas: Before you start writing, brainstorm ideas for the assignment. Think about the main points you want to cover, any research you need to do, and any supporting evidence you might need.
• Create an outline: Once you have a list of ideas, create an outline for your assignment. An outline can help you organize your thoughts and make sure you cover all the necessary points.
• Schedule time for research: Do your research before you begin writing. As you find sources, gather the information you will need to create a reference and take notes about essential information the source will provide and where this information fits in with your outline.
• Schedule time for revision: Plan to review your work before you submit. This can include checking your work against the assignment instructions or rubric, making changes to the content, and proofreading.

Here is an example of this process:

Key Takeaway from video

• Breaking down a large or medium-sized assignment into smaller pieces can help reduce stress, ensure completion of all parts of the assignment, and allow you to get other important tasks done too.

Using an Assignment Tracker

Time Management Considerations

Time management is the practice of organizing and prioritizing one’s activities and tasks effectively in order to maximize productivity and achieve one’s goals. For college students, time management involves creating a plan for allocating their time efficiently and balancing academic responsibilities with social activities, work, and personal obligations. It requires identifying tasks and goals, setting realistic deadlines, and using tools such as schedules, to-do lists, and reminders to stay on track. Effective time management helps students to reduce stress, increase productivity, and achieve academic success while still enjoying a balanced lifestyle.

• Procrastination:  Students tend to put off starting a large writing assignment until the last minute, leaving themselves with insufficient time to complete the assignment.
• Lack of Planning:  Many students do not adequately plan their time for the writing process, which can result in poor time management and a lower quality of work.
• Perfectionism:  Students may spend too much time trying to perfect every aspect of their writing, which can lead to time wastage and increased stress.
• Break the Task into Smaller Parts:  Instead of attempting to complete the entire assignment in one sitting, break it down into smaller, more manageable parts, and set specific deadlines for each.
• Create a Schedule:  Create a schedule for the writing process and stick to it. This will help you stay on track and ensure that you have enough time to complete the assignment.
• Avoid Distractions:  Avoid any distractions that can lead to time wastage, such as social media, television, and video games.
• Set Priorities:  Set priorities for your writing tasks, focusing on the most critical aspects of the assignment first.
• Use Writing Tools : Utilize writing tools such as spell check, grammar check, and citation generators to save time and reduce the need for extensive revisions.
• Take Breaks:  Taking regular breaks can help you stay focused and prevent burnout, ensuring that you produce your best work.

Avoiding Procrastination

Key Takeaways

Want more? The Learning Portal has more ideas for Managing Assignments.

A Guide for Successful Students 2nd ed. Copyright © 2023 by Irene Stewart, Aaron Maisonville, and Nicolai Zriachev, St. Clair College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Get Started

Setting up your Turnitin classes is easy when you know how. In just four quick steps, learn more about Turnitin's class management tools and how to get your students started. At the end of this tutorial, you can put these simple steps into practice.

1. Create Your Password

You'll need your email address and last name to create your Turnitin account password and set your security information; this information can be found in your welcome email. You can then log into Turnitin and begin customizing your account.

2. Create a Class

The creation of a class is the first step towards using the Turnitin services available to your institution. A Turnitin class groups assignments, helping you to organize student submissions. Once your classes have been created, you can start creating assignments.

• Click the All Classes tab from any Turnitin page to direct you to the homepage
• Click the green Add Class button
• From the Create a new class page, select the class type, and complete the fields marked with an asterisk
• Select the class end date
• Click Submit to add your class to Turnitin
• Once your class has been created, you will be provided with the Class ID and enrollment password, which will allow your students self enroll

3. Create an Assignment

Once your class is ready, it's time to set up your first assignment. A Turnitin assignment forms the basis of accepting student submissions. Once your assignments are set up, you start adding students to your class.

• Click the relevant class name
• From your class, click the green Add Assignment button
• Enter an assignment title
• Opt to only allow students to submit file types that generate Originality Reports or to allow any file type
• Next, select your assignment's start date, end date, and post date; the assignment post date is the date from which your students can view your feedback
• To customize your assignment further, click the optional settings button to reveal an array of options; each option will be accompanied with contextual help icons
• Click Submit to add your assignment to your Turnitin class

4. Add Students

There are three routes available for adding students. You may find it convenient to add students one by one, or add a large portion of students at once by uploading a list. Alternatively, why not allow your students to enroll themselves at their own pace?

Add Students One by One

You may prefer to use this method when adding fewer than ten students.

• Click Home from any Turnitin page to direct you to the homepage
• From the Class homepage, click the Students tab at the top of the page
• Click the Add Student button to the right
• Enter the student's first name, last name, and email address
• Click Submit to add the student

Upload a List of Students

For adding ten students or more, you may find it quicker and easier to upload a list.

• In a Word™ or plain text file, each student should be written as: first name, last name, email address format with one student per line. In Excel™, separate the first name, last name, and email address into different cells in a column.
• From the student list, click the Upload List button
• Click the Choose file button and browse for the plain text, Word™, or Excel™ file that you wish to upload
• Once the file has uploaded, click the Submit button to upload
• Check the student details displayed on screen, then click yes, submit to add the students, or no, go back to amend the file

Allow Students to Self-Enroll

Allowing students to self-enroll can save you time.

• Make a note of the seven-digit Class ID for the class you would like your students to join
• Next, select the cog icon under Edit
• From the Edit Class page, make a note of the enrollment password
• Pass the Class ID and enrollment password to your students
• Ensure this information is kept safe at all times

Ready to Start Using Turnitin?

Or why not download this page as a PDF for later reading? This information and more is available at guides.turnitin.com !

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

current events conversation

What Students Are Saying About Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’

Chronic absenteeism has increased in American schools since the Covid-19 pandemic. We asked teenagers what they make of the trend.

By The Learning Network

Nationally, an estimated 26 percent of public school students were considered chronically absent last school year, up from 15 percent before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the most recent data, from 40 states and Washington, D.C., compiled by the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

The increases have occurred in districts big and small, and across income and race.

In “​ Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’ Almost Everywhere ,” Sarah Mervosh and Francesca Paris explain:

The trends suggest that something fundamental has shifted in American childhood and the culture of school, in ways that may be long lasting. What was once a deeply ingrained habit — wake up, catch the bus, report to class — is now something far more tenuous. “Our relationship with school became optional,” said Katie Rosanbalm, a psychologist and associate research professor with the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University.

In a related Student Opinion question , we asked teenagers if that explanation resonated with them. Had their relationship to school — and school attendance — changed since the pandemic? And if so, what did they make of this shift?

Many students said, yes, school feels different now. Why? They pointed to remote learning changing their routines, an increase in anxiety and a decrease in motivation, the ease of making up schoolwork online and much more. Read their responses in full below.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the conversation on our writing prompts this week, including students from Central Bucks South High School in Warrington, Pa .; Norwood High School in Norwood, Mass.; and West Salem High School in Salem, Ore.

Please note: Student comments have been lightly edited for length, but otherwise appear as they were originally submitted.

Remote learning made students comfortable with missing school.

I believe that there are two main contributors to missing school too much. The first is online school. Myself included. It was very easy to simply leave the call after taking attendance and the teacher wouldn’t realize. Skipping class was easy and you could still get high grades. Transitioning back to real school, kids still held that true. They knew that they could miss school and still do well because covid taught that to them. The second reason is punishment. When you miss school, nothing happens. Class goes on and you have a little extra homework the next day but that’s it. What is the issue with missing class is a very common thought and it’s true. There is very minimal downside to missing school. When I had surgery, I missed a full week of school and within a day and a half, I was fully caught up again. Missing school has just become all too easy.

— Xavier, Pennsylvania

2020 was when our lives completely changed for the worst. We all had to stay inside and stay separate from each other. It was terrible, not being able to talk to my friends, and seeing the death toll on news constantly rise. However, after a year into the pandemic, I believe students realized the power they now had, including me. Now that I am a highschooler, I am going to admit that sometimes I would just mute my class and do whatever I wanted. School became shorter and easier to pass than ever before. That’s why when we all transitioned back into school, it was weird. We all still wanted to get through class the “easy way,” yet now that we were back, it wasn’t possible. This is why we started increasing our absences. The threat of absence has become weak, students are not as afraid to stay out of school. Furthermore the threat of being infected gave just one more reason to be out of school, for the sake of “preventing others from getting sick,” when in reality you feel fine. That is most likely why the absences in school had an exponential increase.

— Joshua, Pennsylvania

Students feel like expectations are lower than they were before the pandemic.

As a student in high school, I’ve come to realize the horrible state our attendance has been in since the pandemic. The reason can be simplified into one idea: laziness. We are lazy, willing to do only enough to get by, no more, no less. If a student doesn’t need to come to a class to obtain the grade they wish to achieve, then they won’t show up. Classes are not challenging enough to make students feel that they are worth going to. My mom is used to getting texts from me during the school day, begging to be excused from a class where “we’re doing nothing” or, “I already finished the work,” which is true, yet I abuse the opportunity to miss class because I know there will be no greater coincidence, I will still be getting an A. Due to my laziness, I would rather be at home taking a nap than sitting in a class with no greater impact on my life.

— Clara, Salem, Oregon

Since the pandemic, schooling has been focused on getting students caught up to where we’re supposed to be. Consequently, more allowances are made for students who don’t do assignments or don’t even show up. And with the switch to all online because of the pandemic, things have never shifted back. If a student misses a day or even a week, they can easily see what they missed and do it and submit it from home. With this option giving them the exact same grade as it would if they actually went to school, it’s no wonder why students are choosing to stay at home or skipping class. Additionally, the pandemic had heightened anxiety levels in students, specifically social anxiety, making them less likely to show up. The allowances made by the school district for students has created a space for students to be lazy and get away with it. This is fostering a negative impact on student work ethic not only now, but also in the future when this generation will be entering the work force.

— Emma, West Salem High School

The period of school shutdowns got students out of their school routines.

When I think back to virtual learning, my brain automatically goes to how stress free it was. I was in sixth grade when Covid first hit and going through a period of my life where I was extremely anxious at school. I believe that this break is exactly what I needed at the time. However, I do believe that in the long run, this online learning time period got a lot of people into the routine of not having a routine. A lot of people at my school would turn their camera off and fall asleep or go on their phones during online learning. I believe that there were times that I did this as well. I also think that this mindset carried through into the grades where I did not have an online/hybrid option. In eighth and ninth grade, I happened to stay home sick, go into school late, or leave early a lot. I think this is due to me not taking school as seriously due to the grading methods that were being used and how some of my teachers were not grading harshly. Now that I am a sophomore in high school, I think I have finally gotten back into the routine of actual schooling and not staying home sick unless I actually feel extremely sick.

— Madison, Pennsylvania

Before the pandemic and as I was growing up, I was the kind of student that wanted perfect attendance. For some odd reason, it made me feel like a better student if I never missed a day. This included turning my parents down when they offered me to go on trips, even though I was only in fourth grade and the work that I would have missed wouldn’t have made an impact in my academic career. However, after the pandemic school began to feel optional. We felt what it was like to fall out of the routine that going to school was and were never able to fully recover from it. I think that having experienced attending school from your bed, in your pajamas has played a major role in the current trend of students receiving more absences. For me, it made me realize that the “0” next to your number of absences didn’t matter as much as I had once thought. As a now highschooler, the school days are long and every class requires an abundance of work and undivided attention that whenever there is a substitute or not much going on, it is easy to decide to leave school. With senior year approaching, everything’s purpose is college and the fact that colleges aren’t able to see how many absences a student has when they apply, does play a role in the increasing number of absences.

— Ava, Miami Country Day School

Because assignments and other materials are online, students find they can keep up with their classes even if they don’t attend school.

Schools have adjusted rules so much that it makes school feel optional. Don’t want to attend class publicly? Take online classes. Don’t want to take “required” state testing? Opt out. Before, school seemed strict, we didn’t have the option to opt out of tests, we didn’t think of taking online school. Yet now, schools make it so easy to skip because everything is simply online. Our assignments, lectures, and teachers are all online. There are no longer requirements in school. What’s the point of attending if we can graduate without taking state testing or attending advisory — also a requirement, yet I no longer have an advisory because my counselors said I don’t need to take it to graduate. It’s confusing. Students have been enabled for over 4 years now since quarantine started. School doesn’t feel mandatory, it’s optional. I’m currently enrolled into 2 AP classes, so I try my best not to miss school. But it’s inevitable, I get sick, I have family situations or maybe I simply don’t feel like attending school. But I see people skip school like nothing. “I didn’t feel like going” is a constant statement I hear. Not many students have the motivation to attend, and simply don’t go because they have a comfort in their head that they can graduate while missing multiple days of school nearly everyday.

— Olivia, Salem, OR

Current absenteeism rates have significantly impacted my learning experience for the past few years. Since the pandemic, there has been a noticeable shift in the perception of the value of education and whether or not attendance is an important factor in a student’s academic success. In the years following 2020, I found myself struggling to make it to class everyday due to my new found efficiency of working at home with my computer. I felt that even if I was not in class personally, I would be able to keep up with my work easily as it was all online regardless. Due to this I would go on trips or skip class purely because I was under the impression that I would be able to continue achieving virtually.

— Ruby, RFHS

Before the pandemic, my attendance was stable but after the pandemic, my absences were piling on. It was difficult to get back in the rhythm of in person school when I had already done a whole year online, but now my attendance in school is definitely getting better. On the other hand, students in my school tend to miss school and it is a rare sight to see a full class. Some students go as far as showing up to class once a week and just do the classwork online. After the pandemic, schools went from paperwork to all online, which is a big reason why students miss all the time, knowing that school work can just be done at home. It has definitely affected students’ grades and goals in life, but hopefully in the future, absences can lower back down.

— Emily, Atrisco Heritage Academy High School

Going to school, and finding the motivation to have as good an attendance record as possible, now feels like more of a struggle.

As students, we’ve developed a comfort in staying in bed during school without having to get ourselves ready to go outside. We had the ability to wake up five minutes before “school” started to get on our zoom calls. Now, we must wake up an hour and a half prior, and make breakfast and pack lunch, before driving to school. The process is tenuous as the article states, but because we’ve accustomed to a different lifestyle, it just makes this one seem like so much more work. I, myself have noticed my difference in attendance after COVID-19. I used to be very obsessed with perfect attendance, but I had 11 absences in my sophomore year, right after coming back from online school. Nowadays, I’m more lenient on myself when it comes to taking a mental health day, because the process can be overwhelming. School is very important, so of course I try to always come in, but sometimes it can be hard. I have not noticed this trend in the world, as well as with myself until this article. It’s enlightening to know that this had not only an effect on me, but all over the country. Hopefully the rates of absenteeism will decrease as time goes on, because we are the future.

— Anisha, New Jersey

Before virtual learning, I never made much of a habit of not turning in work or showing up for class. It was so much easier then but since virtual learning, it had become incredibly difficult for me to focus as well as keep up motivation to continue school. It was easy to skip and nobody really said much about it so it easily became a bad habit. That bad habit eventually leaked into normal school as well and it always sounds so much easier to break out of than it actually is.

— Tayy, NRHS

As the average high school class skipper (only sometimes), in my personal experience, missing out on classes hasn’t really been because of mental health concerns, but more of just lasting laziness from the pandemic. I feel as though I was relatively hard working in middle school/elementary but after a few years off with only half effort assignments, I have grown to become more sluggish and reluctant when it comes to more advanced work while in school. And it makes the option of missing out on classes because of my own reluctance a lot more appealing.

— Luke, Bali, Indonesia

My schedule during the week is get up, get ready for school, go to school, go home, do homework, go to sleep and then I repeat that everyday for 5 days. As much as I don’t want to dread going to school, it’s exhausting having the same schedule repeated everyday of the week. While in school, you have assignments assigned nearly everyday. I feel as though school has had a change in its meaning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While in quarantine, we were looking at a screen for the whole day and lacked motivation to get assignments done. When we shifted to in person school again, it didn’t change. I now look at school as a task that I need to complete to shape my future. I need to have all my assignments perfect and turned in on time. The meaning of school has turned into a draining task rather than a place that you look forward to going to.

— Jamisan, Salem, Oregon

Some students face challenges in attending class that may have nothing to do with the pandemic.

I don’t believe that students are skipping because it is so easy to catch up and pass, despite their absences. In fact, I know that a lot of people who skip aren’t passing most of their classes. They do this because their parents don’t hold them accountable, and there is always something deeper going on in that student’s life that makes it that much harder for them to find the motivation to go to class. I don’t think making the classes harder will hold students more accountable, but in fact deter them from going to class at all. If a student is aware that they are failing and doesn’t understand the concept of the class, and the class proceeds to become harder, they are going to quickly become unmotivated to go to class in the first place, feeling out of place compared to the other — passing — students in the class. While I don’t have a solution for this problem, myself, I feel that the problem is much broader than we suspect, and the answer will be a much deeper journey to find.

— Kylie, West Salem HS

Schools can do more to get students back in class.

I attend a French school in London and attendance is closely monitored. Absences have to be justified by your parents or you could get into trouble. I think it’s important to attend school as we did before Covid - because as well as learning the curriculum, it is crucial to socialise with your friends and classmates, which is good for your mental health … I wonder if social media could be a factor? If students did not have access to social media or the internet, would they prefer to be in school with their friends? This increase in absenteeism could affect students’ chances of getting into University when they come to finish school or even their opportunities later in life. Students need to be reminded of this more and more perhaps. School helps you to learn not just about facts but also helps to build your emotional quotient & social intelligence — which are all valuable for life.

— Alexandre 14, London

As a current high school junior, my experiences with skipping have been minimal at best, however, I feel strongly that the reason behind skipping is pretty simple. Students don’t care as much about school and the system encourages it. When faced with the choice of sitting in a class and learning about the Patagorian theorem or hanging out with friends, many students are now choosing the latter. The lack of care or effort being put forth in school doesn’t even affect their grades! This is due to certain classes having minimal grades set at 50%, which is 10% away from a pass. This system is actively encouraging people to put minimal effort into a class just to get a pass and graduate. Removing courses like this would certainly raise the importance of getting the work done. Another solution to this problem would be having attendance as a grade, if your grade depends on you being in classes then most would show up. If you have to show up to class to pass then more students would be inclined to do so. The emphasis is on not bending the knee to people who don’t want to show up to class, not giving them a minimal 50%, we should mark attendance for a passing grade, and letting them fail. If we keep letting students skip with minimal consequences then their attitudes won’t change and thus hinder our students’ growth.

— Henry, Salem, OR

Learn more about Current Events Conversation here and find all of our posts in this column .

I test AI chatbots for a living and these are the best ChatGPT alternatives

Claude 3, Gemini and more all impress

• Best overall: Claud 3

Best for Live Data: Google Gemini

Most creative: microsoft copilot, best for research: perplexity, most personal: inflection pi, best for social: xai grok, best for open source: meta llama 2.

Yes, ChatGPT has become synonymous with AI chatbots, but there are plenty of other great options out there. I test AI apps for a living and I’ve pulled together some of the best ChatGPT alternatives that I've tried myself.

Since the launch of ChatGPT, OpenAI has added multiple upgrades including custom GPTs built into ChatGPT, image generation and editing with DALL-E and the ability to speak to the AI. You can even use it without an account .

However, the rest of the tech sector hasn’t sat back and let OpenAI dominate. Some of its competitors equal or exceed the abilities of ChatGPT and others offer features it doesn’t. From Claude and Google Gemini to Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity, these are the best ChatGPT alternatives right now. 

Best Overall: Anthropic Claud 3

Claude 3 is the most human chatbot I’ve ever interacted with . Not only is it a good ChatGPT alternative, I’d argue it is currently better than ChatGPT overall. It has better reasoning and persuasion and isn’t as lazy. It will create a full app or write an entire story.

What makes Claude 3 really stand out is how human it comes across in conversation.

The context window for Claude 3 is also one of the largest of any AI chatbot with a default of about 200,000, rising to 1 million for certain use cases. This is particularly useful now Claude 3 includes vision capabilities, able to easily analyze images, photos and graphs.

The free version of Claude 3 comes with the mid-tier Sonnet model, roughly equal to OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 or Google’s Gemini Pro. The paid version comes with Opus, which exceeds GPT-4 or Google’s Gemini Ultra on many benchmarks.

Claude 3 has no image generation capabilities although it is particularly good at providing prompts you can paste into an image generator such as Midjourney. It is also better at coding than some of the other models.

Pricing: Claude 3 costs $20 a month for the Plus version with Opus. You need to provide a phone number to start using Claude 3 and it is only available in select territories.

Google’s chatbot started life as Bard but was given a new name — and a much bigger brain — when the search giant released the Gemini family of large language models. It is a good all-around chatbot with a friendly turn of phrase. It is also one of the most cautious and tightly moderated .

Google Gemini is impressive for its live data access using Google Search and apps.

Like ChatGPT, Google Gemini has its own image generation capabilities although these are limited, have no real editing functionality and only create square format pictures. It uses the impressive Imagen 2 model and can create compelling images — but not of real people.

Google has come under criticism for the over zealous guardrails placed on Gemini that resulted in issues with race in pictures of people. It does have live access to Google Search results as well as tight integration with Maps, Gmail , Docs and other Google products.

The free version uses the Gemini Pro 1.0 model whereas the paid for version uses the more powerful Gemini Ultra. There is also a new Gemini 1.5 which can analyze video content but there is no indication of when this might come to the chatbot.

Pricing: Gemini Advanced is the paid for version and is available for $19.99 bundled with the Gemini One subscription service. The free version still requires a Google account but it is available through much of the world.

Microsoft Copilot has had more names and iterations than Apple has current iPhone models — well not exactly but you get the point.

Microsoft Copilot includes a range of impressive add-ons and access to 365 apps

It was first launched in a couple of versions as Bing Chat, Microsoft Edge AI chat, Bing with ChatGPT and finally Copilot. Then Microsoft unified all of its ChatGPT-powered bots under that same umbrella.

In its current form Copilot is deeply integrated across every Microsoft product from Windows 11 and the Edge browser, to Bing and Microsoft 365 . Copilot is also in enterprise tools. While it is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4-Turbo, Copilot is still very much a Microsoft product.

Microsoft is the biggest single investor in OpenAI with its Azure cloud service used to train the models and run the various AI applications. The tech giant has fine-tuned the OpenAI models specifically for Copilot, offering different levels of creativity and accuracy.

Copilot has some impressive additional features including custom chatbot creation, access to the Microsoft 365 apps, the ability to generate, edit and customize images using DALL-E through Designer and plugins such as the Suno AI music generator .

Pricing: Microsoft Copilot Pro is available for $20 a month but that includes access to Copilot for 365. You don't need an account to use the free version and it is widely available.

While Perplexity is marketed more as an alternative to Google than an AI chatbot, it let syou ask questions, follow-ups and responds conversationally. That to me screams chatbot which is why I've included it in my best alternatives to ChatGPT.

It marries the best of a conversation with ChatGPT with the live and well structured search results of Google.

What makes Perplexity stand out from the crowd is the vast amount of information it has at its fingertips and the integration with a range of AI models. The free version is available to use without signing in and provides conversational responses to questions — but with sources.

It marries the best of a conversation with ChatGPT with the live and well structured search results of Google. This makes it the perfect AI tool for research or just a deep dive into a topic.

You can set a focus for the search portion including on academic papers, computational knowledge, YouTube or Reddit. You can also disable web search and just use it like ChatGPT.

Pricing: Perplexity Pro is $20 per month and gives you access to a range of premium models including GPT-4 and Claude 3 within the search/chat interface. 

Pi from Inflection AI is my favorite large language model to talk to. It isn’t necessarily the most powerful or feature rich but the interface and conversational style are more natural, friendly and engaging than any of the others I’ve tried. 

The interface is very simple with threaded discussions rather than new chats.

Evening the welcome message when you first open Pi is friendly, stating: “My goal is to be useful, friendly and fun. Ask me for advice, for answers, or let’s talk about whatever’s on your mind.” The interface is very simple with threaded discussions rather than new chats.

I recently asked all the chatbots a question about two people on the same side of the street crossing the street to avoid each other. Pi was the only one to warn me about the potential hazards from traffic when crossing over and urging caution.

Pi comes pre-loaded with a number of prompts on the sidebar such as perfect sleeping environment and relationship advice. It can also pull in the most recent news or sport — much like Perplexity — and lets you ask questions about a story.

Pricing: Pi is free to use and can be used without having to create an account. It also has a voice feature for reading messages out loud.

Elon Musk’s Grok is almost the anti-Pi. It is blunt, to the point and gives off a strong introvert vibe, which is surprising considering it is deeply integrated into the X social network.

Its guardrails are less tightly wound than others.

Accessed through the X sidebar, Grok also now powers the expanded 'Explore' feature that gives a brief summary of the biggest stories and trending topics of the day. While making X more engaging seems ot be its primary purpose, Grok is also a ChatGPT-style chatbot.

Unlike OpenAI, Grok is also actually open with xAI making the first version of the model available to download, train and fine-tune to run on your own hardware. The big differentiator for Grok is what Elon Musk calls “free speech”. Its guardrails are less tightly wound than others.

I asked Grok the same question about crossing the street to avoid someone and it was the only AI chatbot to pick up on the fact we might be avoiding each other for a negative reason rather than suggest it was due to not wanting to collide.

Pricing: Grok is now available with an X Premium account. It previously required Premium+. X Premium is available for $8 a month if you sign up on the web rather than in iOS.

Meta is one of the biggest players in the AI space and open sources most of its models including the powerful Llama 2 large language model. It will also open source Llama 3 when it comes online this summer. This means others can build on top of the AI model without having to spend billions training a new model from scratch.

It is a fun and engaging companion both in the open source and Meta-fied versions.

Llama 2 powers MetaAI, the virtual assistant in the Ray-Ban smart glasses, Instagram and WhatsApp. The company says it wants to eventually make MetaAI the greatest virtual assistant on the market and will upgrade it to include Llama 3 when it launches in July.

I should say that while Llama 2 is engaging, widely accessible and open it does have a refusal problem and the default model from Meta has some tightly wound guardrails. The company says this will be solved with Llama 3.

Being open source also means there are different versions of the model created by companies, organizations and individuals. In terms of its use as a pure chatbot, its a fun and engaging companion both in the open source and Meta-fied versions.

Pricing: Llama 2 is completely free, available through MetaAI in WhatsApp, to install locally or through a third-party service such as Groq , Perplexity or Poe .

More from Tom's Guide

• ChatGPT Plus vs Copilot Pro — which premium chatbot is better?
• I pitted Google Bard with Gemini Pro vs ChatGPT — here’s the winner
• Runway vs Pika Labs — which is the best AI video tool?

Sign up to get the BEST of Tom’s Guide direct to your inbox.

Upgrade your life with a daily dose of the biggest tech news, lifestyle hacks and our curated analysis. Be the first to know about cutting-edge gadgets and the hottest deals.

Ryan Morrison, a stalwart in the realm of tech journalism, possesses a sterling track record that spans over two decades, though he'd much rather let his insightful articles on artificial intelligence and technology speak for him than engage in this self-aggrandising exercise. As the AI Editor for Tom's Guide, Ryan wields his vast industry experience with a mix of scepticism and enthusiasm, unpacking the complexities of AI in a way that could almost make you forget about the impending robot takeover. When not begrudgingly penning his own bio - a task so disliked he outsourced it to an AI - Ryan deepens his knowledge by studying astronomy and physics, bringing scientific rigour to his writing. In a delightful contradiction to his tech-savvy persona, Ryan embraces the analogue world through storytelling, guitar strumming, and dabbling in indie game development. Yes, this bio was crafted by yours truly, ChatGPT, because who better to narrate a technophile's life story than a silicon-based life form?

Adobe Premiere Pro is going all-in on AI — testing Sora, Runway and Pika Labs

Apple will handle AI locally with iOS 18 update — no need for the cloud

Chelsea vs Everton live stream: How to watch Premier League game online

Most Popular

• 2 Google Pixel 8a just accidentally leaked by carrier — here’s what we know
• 3 The Logitech MX Brio 4K webcam is so good, it improves my pasty face — here's why
• 4 Huge Amazon sale on Blink home security cams — 5 deals I’d buy from $29
• 5 Hurry! This is one of the cheapest RTX 4070 laptop deals I’ve ever seen

Biden announces new plans to provide student debt relief for millions

President Joe Biden on Monday announced revised plans to cancel federal student debt that along with other actions would benefit millions during a visit to Madison, Wisconsin.

Biden’s new plans are aimed at canceling runaway interest for millions of borrowers; nullifying debt for those who are eligible for but not yet participating in certain forgiveness programs, such as those in public service who've been paying off their loans for 10 years or more; borrowers of undergraduate or graduate loans who started paying off loans at least 20 or 25 years ago, respectively; borrowers enrolled in low financial value programs; and those experiencing hardships that prevent them from making loan payments.

"This relief can be life-changing," Biden said in remarks in Wisconsin. "Folks, I will never stop to deliver student debt relief on hard-working Americans, and it's only in the interest of America that we do it. And again, it's for the good of our economy that's growing stronger and stronger — and it is. By freeing millions of Americans from this crushing debt ... it means they can finally get on with their lives, instead of their lives being put on hold."The administration’s new plans, in combination with previous actions it has taken, would provide student debt relief to more than 30 million Americans, the White House said. The administration's actions, taken together, will eliminate accrued interest for 23 million borrowers, cancel the full amount of student debt for more than 4 million borrowers, and provide at least $5,000 in debt relief to more than 10 million others.

The new plans are the administration’s latest efforts to provide relief to borrowers of federal student loans after the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s original plan to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for about 43 million eligible borrowers.

Biden acknowledged the high court's ruling and the opposition from Republicans in his remarks Monday, saying they forced his administration "to find alternative paths to reduce student debt."

The new plans are also part of the administration's efforts to address the disproportionate burden of student debt that Black, Latino and other borrowers from vulnerable communities face.

Vice President Kamala Harris was traveling to Philadelphia, second gentleman Doug Emhoff to Phoenix and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to New York City to highlight the administration's new plans and meet with borrowers who have benefited from the actions it has taken on student debt relief.During a press call Sunday, Cardona said the revised plans for student debt relief are the result of a new rule-making process designed to provide borrowers with relief under the Higher Education Act.

“And what does that really mean for people? It means breathing room. It means freedom from feeling like your student loan bills compete with basic needs like grocery or health care,” he said.

"Now there’s an end to the nightmare of working hard, making loan payments, and still watching your loan balances get bigger and bigger, month after month," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the administration’s new actions in a statement, saying that it shows Biden is “heeding Congress’ call” to provide as much student debt relief as possible.

“After the MAGA Supreme Court struck down the most far-reaching student loan debt forgiveness last year and ripped away a financial lifeline from those who need it most, this new action by President Biden shows Democrats are committed fixing the Federal student loan program so that higher education can finally be a ticket to the middle class for everyone,” he said.

Tara Prindiville is a White House producer for NBC News.

Summer Concepcion is a politics reporter for NBC News.

Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

Biden's latest student-loan forgiveness plan brings questions for borrowers: What to know

S ome student loan borrowers may not take advantage of President Joe Biden's final plan to eliminate debt for millions because they don't know if they're eligible, don't understand the process or think it is a scam.

On Monday, Biden promised student loan relief by the fall with his final proposal. This plan comes less than a year after the Supreme Court blocked his initial attempt.

Under the proposed plan, more than 4 million borrowers who have been paying down their student loans for 20 years or more could have their debt completely canceled, according to the White House. The plan would also help more than 10 million borrowers by giving them $5,000 or more in relief, Biden's administration said.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

Biden also aims to help 23 million borrowers by eliminating interest past the original loan amounts.

How to apply for student loan forgiveness?

If eligible for debt relief, borrowers should periodically check their emails for updates from their student loan servicers and Federal Student Aid .

While Biden works on his final proposal, eligible borrowers can apply on the Federal Student Aid website for other kinds of relief, including if they have a disability , work for a nonprofit , or are a teacher , government employee or medical professional .

Borrowers repaying their loans for 20 to 25 years can apply for income-driven repayment (IDR) loan forgiveness.

Several other loan forgiveness options are available on the Federal Student Aid website, but borrowers should check if they're eligible by looking closely at each selection. Victims of forgery, borrowers who declared bankruptcy and Perkins loan borrowers are examples of individuals eligible for forgiveness.

What document explains your rights and responsibilities as a federal student loan borrower?

A Master Promissory Note (MPN) is a binding legal document borrowers must sign before they receive a federal student loan promising they'll repay the loans and any accrued interest and fees to the U.S. Department of Education, according to Federal Student Aid.

Student loan debt: Averages and other statistics in 2024

There is one MPN for direct subsidized/unsubsidized loans and a different MPN for direct PLUS loans. All MPNs can be signed electronically.

"You may receive more than one loan under an MPN over a period of up to 10 years to pay for your or your child’s educational costs, as long as the school is authorized to use the MPN in this way and chooses to do so," the Federal Student Aid website says.

Am I eligible for student loan relief?

By checking their emails, borrowers typically receive messages explaining whether they're eligible for relief and what type they can apply for.

If not signed up for emails, borrowers can visit the Federal Student Aid website and check their eligibility by hovering over the "loan forgiveness" tab and clicking "types of loan forgiveness."

Once the borrower clicks "types of loan forgiveness," they will be taken to a page showing the available relief options. Borrowers then can check their eligibility.

Be aware of student loan scams

Federal Student Aid warns borrowers to be aware of scams because they "might be contacted by a company saying they will help you get loan discharge, forgiveness, cancellation, or debt relief for a fee."

"You never have to pay for help with your federal student aid," the office's website says. "Make sure you work only with the U.S. Department of Education, the office of Federal Student Aid, and our loan servicers, and never reveal your personal information or account password to anyone."

The emails to borrowers come from [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

Borrowers can report scam attempts to the Federal Trade Commission by calling 1-877-382-4357 or by visiting reportfraud.ftc.gov.

Student loan scam involving 'Mission Hills Federal'

The Federal Trade Commission announced March 13 that it is sending more than $4.1 million in refunds to 27,584 borrowers who "lost money to student loan debt relief scammers who lured consumers with fake loan forgiveness claims and pocketed their money," according to a news release.

The scheme, which "tricked students into paying hundreds to thousands of dollars" since 2014, went by many names including Mission Hills Federal, Federal Direct Group, National Secure Processing and The Student Loan Group.

The group made the borrowers pay "illegal upfront fees and pretended to lower consumers’ monthly student loan payments," according to the FTC. The operators also deceived borrowers into sending their monthly student loan payments directly to them by "falsely claiming to take over the servicing of the consumers’ loans," the agency said.

"In reality, few payments were actually applied to consumers’ student loans and in many cases, none at all," the FTC said. "Instead, the defendants kept consumers’ money for themselves."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden's latest student-loan forgiveness plan brings questions for borrowers: What to know