Center for Teaching and Learning

Assignment Design

Many instructors approach assignment design with a "product" focus—that is to say, the choices they make about their assignments (frequency; genre; difficulty; grading scheme; etc.) are oriented towards making sure that the final work that their students submit can be graded in such a way as to differentiate between those who were more and less successful. While assignments undeniably do play a significant role in determining students' grades, we know from both research and experience that students and instructors alike typically experience assignments as more meaningful when they are designed instead with a "process" mentality—that is to say, when instructors develop them with an eye to maximizing the amount of practice and feedback they generate.

Here are what we consider to be the four key elements of effective assignment prompts.

1. Justification and Purpose

This situates the assignment within the context of the course, reminding students of what they have been working on in anticipation of the assignment and how that work has prepared them to succeed at it. It also explains why the particular type or genre of assignment you’ve chosen (e.g., lab report, comparative essay, policy memo, problem set, or personal reflection) is the best way for you and your students to measure how well they’ve met the learning objectives associated with this segment of the course.

When drafting your assignment, you might consider the following questions:

  1. Are you clear as to whether the assignment is formative (i.e. designed to facilitate practice and feedback) or summative (i.e. designed to yield a summary evaluation)?
  2. Will students see the value of the assignment and connect it to course and/or real-world goals?
  3. Are the specific learning goals and skills being assessed explicit to students?
  4. Could the design unintentionally encourage students to outsource some or all of the work to AI or others?

2. Mission

This explains the assignment in broad brush strokes, giving students a general sense of the project you are setting before them. It often gives students guidance on the evidence or data they should be working with, as well as helping them imagine the audience at which their work should be aimed.

When drafting your assignment, you might consider the following questions:

  1. Are the criteria for success clear?
  2. Is there a rubric that communicates how the work will be assessed?

3. Tasks

This outlines what students are supposed to do at a more granular level: for example, how to start, where to look, how to ask for help, etc. If written well, this part of the assignment prompt ought to function as a kind of "process" rubric for students, helping them to decide for themselves whether they are completing the assignment successfully.

When drafting your assignment, you might consider the following questions:

  1. Are students given guidance as to the discrete steps they will need to take to build skills and manage workload? 
  2. Are the instructions specific enough to guide students without being overly vague?
  3. Do earlier, lower-stakes activities prepare students for this assignment?
  4. Are expectations for collaboration and appropriate AI use clear?
  5. If it is a group project, is there structure for group dynamics and individual accountability?
  6. Are there opportunities for instructor presence or live coaching during the process?

4. Submission Format

This tells students, in appropriate detail, which stylistic conventions they should observe and how to submit their work. For example, should the assignment be a five-page paper written in APA format and saved as a .docx file? Should it be uploaded to the course website? Is it due by Tuesday at 5:00pm?

When drafting your assignment, you might consider the following questions:

  1. Have I offered the students appropriate training in the formal conventions (e.g. citation styles) that I expect them to follow?
  2. Have I chosen a sensible deadline? (Keep in mind that students may have last-minute questions close to the deadline, so it might not be a bad idea to set a deadline at a time when you and/or your TA are available—like 5:00pm rather than 11:59pm.)
  3. Are students familiar with the submission protocol I am asking them to follow? (e.g. What should a student do if they can't figure out how to upload their project to Moodle by the deadline?)