Assignments

Assignments are an ideal educational tool to enable students to actively process knowledge and practice skills. And most assignments can be done by students at home on their computer. This makes it also a suitable assessment tool (during Covid) to check if your students have achieved the learning objectives of the course. Students gain most from assignments that are challenging and evoke a feeling that contributes to the development and problem solving skills of the student. To get you started, we have collected the most valuable tips, tricks and online applications for you. Join in?

Assignments come in a variety of forms. Assignments can vary from small-scale classroom exercises to longer-term projects, from weekly problem-solving exercises to writing a thesis. Usually, assignments are more complex tasks, on which students have to work independently or collaboratively and with limited supervision. Assignments usually result in a solved problem, a product, a concept, an analysis or a study. What are the most important tips to start with?

The way to do this #1:
Identify which learning goals can be achieved by providing assignments to students.

The way to do this #2:
Communicate the assignment well to your students: what are your expectations? What are the criteria? What is the deadline? etc.

The way to do this #3:
Provide students with a clear structure. To help students start on time it is a good idea to set several milestones and opportunities to receive feedback.

The way to do this #4:
Make it engaging! Consider making the assignment a group assignment or include peer feedback. This way students have more interaction with each other and they can help each other reaching a higher level.

Good practice

Pitfalls

Now that there is hardly any physical contact between the teacher and the students, it is difficult to get insight in the progress of the assignment and whether the student's thinking process is developing. Estimating when the student needs extra guidance is therefore difficult.
This is why it is advisable to regularly schedule a Q&A session with the students: as a group or for shorter periods of time with a smaller group of students. Students can ask you questions, but you can also ask the students questions to estimate what the progress is and what areas of attention are.
Students can also help each other during these moments in break-out rooms. You, as a teacher, can visit each break-out room to ask and answer questions. This also helps students to have more interaction with you and their fellow students.

Different types of Assignments

There are many different types of assignments you could think of. At university, the most common are:

Literature Review

The student has to go through the main idea portrayed in literature and has to validate them according to a given topic or current scenario. While drafting a literature review the student should maintain a formal language with a high level of objectivity. Based on the facts and context provided in the sources the student has to provide a tentative opinion. The student should provide a gap in the literature which provides a justification for conducting the current literature review.

Annotated Bibliography

Students are required to collect relevant sources associated with a certain topic. The teacher can analyse the student’s understanding of the topic and the proposed pieces of literature by allotting this task.

Essay

Students are anticipated to address a topic or question and deliver his ideas and perspective regarding it by referring to relevant sources. The tone of the essay should be factual and for this, it is important that student has conducted vast research pertaining to the topic.

Case Study

Students are provided with a scenario or a situation along with subsidiary questions. In order to answer the questions, the student has to investigate into the scenario and provide relevant answers portraying their in depth knowledge and critical reasoning. The task of a case study is provided to a student in order to check the student’s aptitude in inspecting and scrutinizing a situation. The student has to portray inordinate critical thinking by recognizing both constructive and destructive aspects of the situation. He should also reveal his capability in recommending valid solutions which are relevant to the case.

Project Report

Students provide a brief narration of the current status of the project to the stake holders. This report is of great importance for the stake holders as it gives the notion of whether the project is on track or any modifications are needed in the approach to achieve the desired goals. The student is provided with this task to develop the ability to create a strategy to organise his works and goals.

Reflective Journal

A student has to showcase his understanding and knowledge on a given topic. The task of a reflective report is normally provided to a student in order to evaluate his understanding of a particular topic and his ability to reflect and recollect his learnings gained while in a particular experience. The main audience and the beneficiary of the reflective journal is the writer himself by which he can understand his own weakness and strengths and augment his learning ability.

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Get more ideas

There are a number of variations possible on writing assignments. Ranging from small one-paper reports up to projects and lengthy research reports. Check out more ideas to engage students in their online learning.

Check even more variations on written assignments Links to an external site.