Designing Assignments for your Online Course
Assignment Design Checklist
- Does the assignment align with the module learning objectives? What cognitive activities or skills does the assignment ask students to develop, practice or demonstrate? (describe, summarize, present, analyze, compare, design, etc.) Are these consistent with the learning objectives?
- Will students’ work on this assignment help students to achieve one or more of the module learning objectives? Will there be observable/measurable evidence of this achievement?
- Are the instructions clear? Ask one or more friends, colleagues or family members to read the instructions to make sure the information is complete and easy to understand.
- How does this assignment make sense in relation to what comes before or after it in the course? Is it logically sequenced? Does it build on previous knowledge or skills and/or prepare students for what is to come? [Refer back to your course map where you may have some information that will help with this.]
- Does your assignment take advantage of the special affordances of the online environment, if appropriate: the use of multi-media, the access to web-resources, for example?
- How do you plan to assess or respond to the assignment? If the assignment will be graded, have you included a rubric, or other clear statement of grading criteria? If it is a formative assignment (not intended for grading) what forms of feedback will students receive to validate their work and help them to improve their performance?
- Did you specify any necessary parameters (like word count or page count, time length, citation style or format)?
- Is there clear information about when and how the assignment should be submitted for grading, or shared for feedback?
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