Assignments prompts are a necessary and important component of course design. Assignment prompts communicate the instructor's expectations for how they want students to demonstrate their learning. While instructors may have a clear idea of what they want students to produce/generate, translating those ideas into a prompt can be difficult. Transparency is key.

 

Start with the Course Learning Objectives 

Ask yourself what learning outcomes you want the task to address. What do you want students to demonstrate that they know? How will the assignment provide evidence that they have met or worked towards a learning objective? 

 

Explain the purpose of the assignment 

This may sound obvious, but while the purpose of the assignment may be clear to you as the instructor, students need clear information about the assignment goals and how to meet those goals. How does this task authentically help students make meaning? In what way is the task related to discipinary skills they will need to acquire? 

If students can identify a meaningful purpose they are more likely to see the value in completing it - and perform better

 

Provide the assignment criteria

• How will students go about completing the task?
• Who is this assignment targeted towards? (i.e. Who is the audience? A potential investor with no background in Engineering? A skeptical reader?)
• What formatting expectations do you have? (e.g. word count, page limit, citation format, certain heading styles)

 

Include your grading criteria 

• How will students be assessed? 
• What is the point or percentage value of the assignment? 

 

Other Considerations

• List the due date and any additional important scaffolded checkpoints
• Consider whether you will provide students with models or examples of a completed assignment 
• Will your students know where they can go to get help with the assignment? 
• Encourage students to check their own understanding of the assignment by having them reflect on the task. After they read the prompt, ask students: What do you think is the goal of this assignment? What questions do you have about how you will complete this assignment? 

Checklist for Designing Transparent Assignments - from the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) project 

 

Example Assignment Prompts in Sociology, Psychology, Biology, Criminal Justice, Political Science, Math, History, Finance, etc - from the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) project  ("Example Assignment Prompts, more and less transparent). 

 

Sample Assignment Prompt  - Created by the Pew FTLC 

 

Transparent Assignment Prompt Template - from the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) project