Learners can upload assignments into Blackboard so that instructors can evaluate them. When designing assignments, instructors can think: Purpose; Task; Criteria for Success.
- Purpose: Clearly connect assignments to course objectives so that learners know why they are completing a specific assignment.
- Task: Articulate information regarding the actual task(s) that learners will complete.
- What will the learner produce to fulfill the requirements of the assignment?
- Is that articulated clearly in the language that learners use?
- Does the completion of the task matter?
- Does the way that learners complete the task(s) matter?
- Clearly indicate specific information that learners will need to complete the assignment(s) successfully.
- Criteria for success: If possible include a rubric for assignments so that learners have a clear idea of how they will be assessed.
- Indicate which portions of the assignment will have the most impact on the learner's grade.
- Additional considerations:
- Include assignments in weeks, modules, or units so that learners know when to complete the assignments.
- Consider adding one or several micro-assignments in place of larger high-stakes assignments.
- Provide detailed directions for all assignments.
Some suggested assignments are as follows:
- Compile several online bibliographic resources pertinent to this week’s topic, especially resources that you yourself (the learner) found helpful or that you think other learners who will take this class in the future will find helpful. You must follow the proper (MLA, Chicago, APA, etc) form.
- We’ve now read about the history of tomatoes, corn, and lima beans. Design a multimedia lesson or lecture that brings these histories together in a way that is interesting to you and others like you. Tell me how and why you made the choices you’ve made to approach this story.
- Create a podcast based on locally accessible resources or individuals pertinent to this lesson. This could be good for, say, sustainability, or food systems, or women and gender studies, or immigration …
- Find an online gallery or cultural center, identify a work or object there that has something to do with this class or is relevant to this lesson and write a short paragraph of 300 words explaining why you chose it and how/ why it illustrates the objective you were asked to illustrate.
- Imagine several different historical personages in conversation with each other talking about a specific topic. Create social media profiles for them, and then construct that conversation as a series of tweets or posts on Facebook (there are online tools to simulate these).
- Design an Instagram story that brings together and illustrates these resources, concepts, or theories. Create a text script for that story.
- Create an infographic to compare and contrast this and that approach to the central objective of this week’s lesson. Create a text description of the infographic.
- Use an online “cartooning” tool to illustrate and explain the key points of this week’s subject to someone who knows nothing about it. Do this by text, describing your characters and what they think and say.
- We’ve been examining the problem of bird death rates across the world for some time now. Choose a specific migration pattern, collect any data that is available in online archives or resources, possibly our textbook information bank, and create a poster using a single Power-Point or Google slide to demonstrate a possible plan to re-energize the bird population on your chosen migration route. Please attach a single page, typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, Times New Roman font, approximately 350 words explaining why you believe your choices will be effective.
- Using your phone or a camera on a computer, take a video of yourself dancing the steps we’ve been working on. Analyze your performance considering alignment, coordination, clarity, artistry, and adaptability in 500 words.
- Think back to a time when we used larger studio equipment in class. Describe how you felt positioning that equipment; what choices did you make? What information did you draw on to make those choices? If you had to do it again, what would you do differently to make your experience better? To make the experience of your viewers better? To make the experiences of your team-mates better?
Any one of these could count for a small portion of the course grade, and while they may sound a bit basic, learners have to master quite a lot of material in order to do them really well – just be very clear about the intellectual expectations, and perhaps allow learners to supply alternate ways to meet the objective. Learners cannot have a rich, A-worthy (provide a rubric) conversation between two historical personages of different times or places if they don’t really put themselves in the shoes of those personages and understand how their lives were. Learners cannot make a really good A-worthy lesson or lecture about tomatoes, corn, and lima beans unless they know what succotash is. They cannot present a solid solution to bird death challenges without fully grasping the material you’ve been covering. Ideas and Tips for Course Assessment Tools and Plans
Instructors may choose to use one or a combination of options below. For example, instructors of large classes can reduce the risk of cheating by substituting a small number of short-answer questions for a larger block of multiple-choice questions AND keep the grading load manageable by having students complete the exam in pre-assigned groups.
- Closely connect written assessments to specific course readings, key concepts, and material discussed in prior in-person class meetings. Articulate the connection for learners.
- Connect the questions of the course to the questions that students might have about their lives, the real people that they know or encounter, or help them to develop their own authentic questions that the course can help them to answer.
- Emphasize learning instead of performance.
- Design many low-stakes assessments instead of one or two high-stakes assessments.
- Build formative assessments into regular classroom encounters so that students can develop an accurate assessment of their own knowledge and understanding of course content (metacognition).
- Change the exam format. For example, substitute a small number of short-answer questions or tasks for a larger set of multiple-choice questions.
- Use tools in Blackboard to randomize questions and answer order.
- Assign small groups of students to complete an assessment task together following best practices for effective group work.
- Create video assignments in which individual students feature themselves going about an assessment task and narrating how they do so, e.g. making a clay model or solving a word problem. Assign students to small groups. Have the students in each group share and assess each member’s video using a specific rubric. Best practices for rubric design are available from the University’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment.
- Try out a new form of assessment or two. Have students design a poster presentation or an infographic, for example.
Academic Integrity in an Online or Mixed-Delivery Teaching Environment: Considerations for Instructors
- Transitioning a face-to-face course to an online environment is challenging, especially when exams and quizzes are involved. Tests designed for traditional classrooms may not work equally well online, particularly when it comes to academic integrity. For example, learners can text screen shots of exam questions to others, or take an exam on a laptop while using a cell phone to browse for answers. Clearly communicating course-specific academic integrity expectations – especially those related to collaboration with other learners – is important.
- Given these differences between online and face-to-face learning, instructors may wish to consider making changes in their course assessment instruments for the remainder of the spring semester. Effective assessment changes are linked to course learning objectives and account for instructor needs and limited resources. Practical tips for making changes are described below. Substantial changes, including changes in the dates when assessment will occur or changes in the nature and format of assessment, are understandable in the current, unprecedented environment. Such changes are best communicated to students through a dated Syllabus Addendum posted alongside the original course syllabus on the course Blackboard site.
- Instructors concerned about plagiarism should consider having students submit papers and other written assignments directly to Turnitin via Blackboard, and choosing the setting option that allows students to see the Turnitin Report. Using Turnitin in this manner assures compliance with University policies and federal and state law, including privacy and intellectual property law. The only other approved method for using Turnitin is to have students sign a consent form granting permission for the instructor to use Turnitin. Instructors who wish to use Turnitin but do not have a Turnitin Syllabus Statement in their current course syllabus are strongly encouraged to include one in a new Syllabus Addendum.
- Remember that no student may be penalized for a suspected academic integrity violation until the suspected violation is reported, reviewed and upheld. Information about the University’s academic integrity case reporting and review are available through the Center for Learning and Student Success (CLASS).
Sources and Relevant Links
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