How to Put Into Practice
Review your assessment from the student’s perspective to make expectations transparent. This clarity should extend from instructions for what to do in an assignment (see 6.4 Guide to Writing Clear Instructions) to clear expectations for what successful work looks like. Here are some strategies for helping students receive and apply these critical messages to their learning.
Use text, audio, or video to introduce an assignment
Remind students how the assignment is connected to learning outcomes. Point to the real-world relevance of skills and knowledge they will develop.
Provide relevant examples and resources
Include models and step-by-step examples of problems, walk-throughs, extra resources to support, and give clear guidance on course activities and where to go for help when needed.
Use rubrics to clarify expectations before students submit their work
While we may associate rubrics with grading a finished product, rubrics can also help students understand and apply expectations to their work-in-progress. Adding a rubric also helps instructors grade more efficiently. Instructors can use generative AI as a developmental partner to draft rubrics or co-create criteria with students.
- This resource by DePaul University outlines how to use rubrics to communicate clear expectations to students DePaul also offers resources for designing different types of rubrics including the pros and cons of various rubric formats, how to create rubrics, and examples of effective rubrics.
- One caveat is that we shouldn’t expect rubrics to answer every question or solve all the challenges we face in communicating our expectations to our students. The messages in a rubric about where students should focus their efforts should be reinforced through multiple channels, including course activities, learning outcomes, and interactions, to help students fully understand and act on them.
- See OneHE member resource Rubrics: What They Are and How to Use Them. (Access: This resource is available with OneHE membership. A 10-day free trial is available for new members.)
Use peer review to help students apply expectations to their work
Peer reviews are a particularly powerful part of the learning process, because they constitute an assessment (i.e., they provide information about what students know and can do in order to improve subsequent learning), a learning activity, and an opportunity for reflection on the learning process. Learn more with Peer Review (University of Pittsburgh) and Peer Review in the Classroom: How to Frame Your Feedback (OneHE membership is required to review. A 10-day free trial is available for new members.)
Share instructions with students on how to view feedback in your LMS
- If you set up a peer review assignment in your LMS, share clear instructions so students understand how to use it.
- If you annotate student work in a built-in grading tool within your learning management system, provide guidance to help students find and use your annotations.