How do I create meaningful and effective tasks? 🇧🇷 TLPDC Teaching Resources | Teaching Materials | Home TLPDC (2023)

Prepared by Allison Boye, Ph.D.
Center for Teaching, Learning and Professional Development

Assessment is a necessary part of the teaching and learning process, as it helps us measure whether our students have really learned what we want them to learn. While exams and quizzes are favorite and useful assessment methods, out-of-classroom assignments (written and otherwise) can provide similar information about our students' learning. And just as creating a reliable test requires thought and skill, so does creating meaningful and effective attributions. No doubt many instructors have received disappointing assignments from students wondering what went wrong... and often these problems can be remedied in the future with a simple tweak to the original assignment. This document will discuss some important elements to consider when developing assignments and offer some simple approaches to creating a valuable assessment experience for all involved.

First things first…

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

• Your homework goals🇧🇷 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 intend to measure with this task? Creating assignments is an important part of the overall course design, and each project you assign should clearly align with your goals for the overall course. For example, if you want your students to demonstrate critical thinking, asking them to simply summarize an article may not be the best option for this purpose; a more appropriate option may be to ask for the analysis of a controversial subject of the discipline. Ultimately, the connection between homework and its purpose needs to be clear to you and your students to ensure that it meets its intended goals and doesn't feel like "hard work." For some ideas on what types of assignments match which learning objectives, seethis pageof Teaching Commons at DePaul University.

• the levels of your students🇧🇷 What do your students already know and what can they do when they enter your class? Knowing what your students are (or are NOT) bringing to the table can help you tailor homework appropriately for their skill levels, as too challenging homework can frustrate students or cause them to tune out , while a task that is not challengingenoughcan lead to lack of motivation. Knowing your students' levels will help you determine how much guidance you should give them as well. Some skills you might want to look into include:
  • Did they experience “socialization” into the culture of their discipline (Flaxman, 2005)? Are they familiar with the conventions you want them to know? In other words, do they know the “lingo” of their discipline, generally accepted style guidelines or research protocols?
  • Do they know how to conduct surveys? Do they know the proper style format, documentation style, acceptable features, etc.? Do they know how to use the library (Fitzpatrick, 1989) or evaluate the resources?
  • What kind of writing or work have they done before? For example, have they completed long, formal writing assignments or research projects before? Have you ever engaged in analysis, reflection or argument? Have you completed group assignments before? Do they know how to write a literature review or scientific report?

What your students need to know

Once you've determined your own goals for homework and your students' levels, you can begin creating your homework. However, when presenting your assignment to your students, there are several things you will need to clearly describe to ensure the assignments are successful.

• First, you will need to articulateThe purpose of the task🇧🇷 Even if you know why the assignment is important and what it needs to accomplish, you cannot assume your students will intuit that purpose. Your students will appreciate understanding 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 certain task can ultimately help motivate them to complete the task more carefully.

• 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 use in their writing (Flaxman, 2005). In other words, use precise verbs that communicate whether you are asking to analyze, argue, describe, report, etc. (Verbs like "explore" or "comment" can be too vague and confusing.) task to complete, such as a problem to solve, a question to answer, or an argument to make. For those who want assignments to lead to top-down thesis writing, John Bean (1996) suggests presenting a proposition that students must defend or refute, or a problem that requires a thesis response.

• It's also a good idea to setthe audienceYou want your students to be attentive if possible, especially with writing assignments. Otherwise, students will turn to the instructor alone, often assuming that it requires little explanation or development (Hedengren, 2004; MIT, 1999). Furthermore, asking students to address the instructor, who often knows more about the subject than the student, places the student in an unnatural rhetorical position. Instead, you could ask your students to prepare their assignments for alternative audiences, such as other students who missed classes last week, a group that opposes your position, or people who read a popular magazine or newspaper. In fact, a study by Bean (1996) indicated that students generally appreciate and enjoy assignments that vary things like audience or rhetorical context, so don't be afraid to get creative!

• Of course, you will also need to clearly articulatethe logistical or "business aspects" of the task🇧🇷 In other words, be explicit with your students about the necessary elements, such as format, length, documentation style, writing style (formal or informal?) and deadlines. A word of caution though: don't let the logistics of the job take precedence over the content of your task description; if you spend all your time describing these things, students might suspect that that's all you care about doing the assignment.

• Lastly, you must clarifyyour evaluation criteriaFor homework. Which content elements are most important? Will you evaluate holistically or will you evaluate features separately? How much weight will be given to individual elements, etc.? Another care to take when defining requirements for your students is to be careful that your instructions and rubric don't overshadow the content either; Prescribing each element of a task too rigidly can limit students' freedom to explore and discover. According to Beth Finch Hedengren, “A good heading provides purpose and direction… without dictating exactly what to say” (2004, p. 27). If you decide to use an assessment rubric, be sure to provide it to students along with the assignment description before they complete the assignment.

Some do and some don't...

Determining your goals for the task and your essential logistics is a good start to creating an effective task. However, there are some simpler factors to consider in your final design.
First, here are some things youshould do:

• please provide detailsin your job description🇧🇷 Research has shown that students generally prefer some guidance constraints when completing tasks (Bean, 1996) and that more detail (within reason) can lead to more successful student responses. One idea is to provide students with physical traininghomework handouts, in addition to or instead of a simple description in a syllabus. This can meet the needs of specific students and give them something tangible to refer to. Furthermore, it is often beneficialmake clear to students theprocess or necessary stepsto complete an assignment, as students, especially younger ones, may need guidance in planning and time management (MIT, 1999).

• Use open-ended questions.The most effective and challenging tasks focus on questions that get students thinking and explaining, rather than simple yes or no answers, whether explicitly part of the task description or the brainstorming heuristic (Gardner, 2005).

• Direct students to appropriate available resources🇧🇷 Giving students suggestions for other places to get assistance can help them get started on the right path independently. These types of suggestions might include information about campus resources such as the University Writing Center or subject-specific librarians, suggesting specific journals or books, or even sections of your textbook, or providing them with lists of research ideas or links to websites. acceptable.

• Consider providing templates– successful and unsuccessful models (Miller, 2007). These templates can be provided by past students or templates that you have created yourself. You can even ask students to rate their own models using the provided rubrics, helping them to visualize the final product, think critically about task completion, and ideally, recognize success in their own work.

• Consider including a way for students to do the assignment on their own.In their study, Hass and Osborn (2007) confirmed the importance of students' personal involvement when completing a task. In fact, students will be more engaged with a task if it is personally meaningful, practical, or useful outside of the classroom. You can think of ways to encourage students to use their own experiences or trivia, solve or explore a real problem, or connect with the community at large. Providing variety in task selection can also help students feel more individualized, creative, and in control.

• If your task is substantial or long, consider sequencing it.Often, assignments are turned in as one-off end products that are graded at the end of the semester, abandoned forever by the student. By sequencing a large task, or essentially breaking it down into a systematic approach consisting of smaller, interconnected elements (such as a project proposal, annotated bibliography, draft, or a series of mini-tasks related to the larger task), you can encourage collaboration, consideration, complexity and meticulousness in their students, as well as emphasizing the process over the final product.

Below some itemsto avoidin your tasks:

• don't ask too many questionsin your task. In an effort to challenge students, instructors often err in the opposite direction, asking more questions than students can reasonably answer in a single assignment without losing focus. Providing an overly specific “checklist” often leads to externally organized documents where inexperienced students “slavishly follow the checklist rather than integrate their ideas into a more organically discovered structure” (Flaxman, 2005). 🇧🇷

• Don't expect or suggest that there is an "ideal" answer to the task.A common mistake made by instructors is to dictate the content of an assignment too rigidly or to suggest that there is only one correct answer or one specific conclusion to be drawn, either explicitly or implicitly (Flaxman, 2005). Students certainly don't appreciate the feeling that they must read an instructor's mind to successfully complete a task, or that their own ideas have nowhere to go and may lose motivation as a result. Likewise, avoid tasks that simply call for regurgitation (Miller, 2007). Again, the best assignments invite students to engage in critical thinking, not just repeating lectures or reading.

• Do not give vague or confusing commands🇧🇷 Do students know what it means when they are asked to “examine” or “discuss” a topic? Go back to what you've determined about your students' backgrounds and levels to help you decide which instructions will make the most sense to them and which will require more explanation or guidance, and avoid words that might confuse them.

• Don't impose impossible time constraints or require the use of insufficient resourcesfor completing the task. For example, if you're asking all of your students to use the same resource, make sure there are enough copies available for all students to access, or at least reserve a copy in the library. Likewise, be sure to give students enough time to locate resources and complete homework effectively (Fitzpatrick, 1989).

conclusion

Ultimately, the success of student responses to a task often depends on the deliberate design of the task by the instructor. By being objective and thoughtful from the start, you can ensure that your assignments not only serve as effective assessment methods, but also engage and delight your students. If you would like further assistance in completing or revising an assignment, the Center for Teaching, Learning and Professional Development will be happy to offer individual consultations. Also, review some of the resources provided below.

online resources

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

Gardner, T. (2005, June 12). Ten tips for crafting writing assignments.Traci's top ten lists.http://www.tengrrl.com/tens/034.shtml
This is a short but useful list of tips for writing assignments, prepared by a writing teacher and curriculum developer for the National Council of Teachers of English..The site will also link you to several other "Top 10" lists 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 of Colorado State University who offers some helpful ideas for creating creative assignments.

"Student-Centered Assessment"
http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/learner_centered_assessment.html
From the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo, here is a short list of suggestions for the process of designing an assessment with your students' interests in mind.
“Match learning objectives with task types”.
http://teachingcommons.depaul.edu/How_to/design_assignments/assignments_learning_goals.html
This is a great DePaul University Learning Commons page that provides a chart to help instructors match assignments to learning objectives.

additional references
Feijão, JC (1996).Compelling Ideas: The Teacher's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom🇧🇷 San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Fitzpatrick, R. (1989). Research and writing papers that reduce fear lead to better jobs and more confident students.Write through resume, 3.2, pp. 15-24.

Flaxman, R. (2005). Create meaningful writing assignments.The teaching exchange🇧🇷 Retrieved January 9, 2008 fromhttp://www.brown.edu/Administration/Sheridan_Center/pubs/teachingExchange/jan2005/01_flaxman.pdf

Hass, M. & Osborn, J. (2007, 13 August). An emic view of student writing and the writing process.through the disciplines4.

Hedengren, B. F. (2004).An AT Guide to Teaching Writing in All Subjects. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin.

Hudd, SS (2003, April). Curriculum under construction: Involve students in creating class assignments.Sociology Teaching, 31, pp. 195-202.

Leahy, R. (2002). Writing job.University education, 50.2, pp. 50-54.

Miller, H. (2007). Design effective writing assignments.teach with writing🇧🇷 University of Minnesota Writing Center. Retrieved January 9, 2008 fromhttp://escritura.umn.edu/tww/assignments/designing.html

MIT Online Writing and Communication Center (1999). Creating writing assignments. Retrieved January 9, 2008 fromhttp://web.mit.edu/writing/Faculty/createefective.html.