Module 1 Assignment: Title

This sample assignment placeholder uses the transparent assignment template Links to an external site. as a guide for helping improve student learning and success on the assignment. It includes sections about the assignment purpose, learning outcomes, tasks, and criteria for success. Making these aspects of each course activity or assignment explicitly clear to students has demonstrably enhanced students’ learning in national studies.  You can see examples of assignments which clearly communicate to students the purpose and expectations for the assignment on the Transparency in Teaching and Learning Project Links to an external site. site.

Purpose

Define the learning outcomes in language and terms that help students recognize how this assignment will benefit their learning. Indicate how these are connected with institutional learning outcomes, and how the specific knowledge and skills involved in this assignment will be important in students’ lives beyond the contexts of this assignment, this course, and this college.

The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice the following skills that are essential to your success in this course / in school / in this field / in professional life beyond school:

• Learning Outcome 1 (see this Learning Objective Builder tool for help creating measurable learning outcomes)
• Example: Students will explain how the communication process relates to their everyday interactions.

Tasks

Define what activities the student should do/perfom. “Question cues” from this chart Links to an external site. might be helpful. List any steps or guidelines, or a recommended sequence for the students’ efforts. Specify any extraneous mistakes to be avoided. If there are sound pedagogical reasons for withholding information about how to do the assignment, protect students’ confidence and sense of belonging with a purpose statement something like this: “The purpose of this assignment is for you to struggle and feel confused while you invent and test your own approach for addressing the problem..." 

1. Start statement with a verb to explain the steps students will take.
2. Example: Identify chapter concepts that you find inspirational and reinforce personal experiences.

Criteria for Success

Define the characteristics of the finished product. Provide multiple, annotated examples of what these characteristics look like in practice, to encourage students’ creativity and reduce their incentive to copy any one example too closely. With students, collaboratively analyze examples of work before the students begin working. Explain how excellent work differs from adequate work. It is often useful to provide or compile with students a checklist or rubric of characteristics of successful work. This enables students to evaluate the quality of their own efforts while they are working, and to judge the success of their completed work. Students can also use the checklist to provide feedback on peers’ coursework. Indicate whether this task/product will be graded and/or how it factors into the student’s overall grade for the course. Later, asking students to reflect and comment on their completed, graded work allows them to focus on changes to their learning strategies that might improve their future work.

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