assignment strategies

taking notes on the reading

Taking Notes on the Reading

Every course has assignments, but do they get the attention they deserve or do the same versions end up in the syllabus year after year? How much variety is there in the assignments students complete, in degree programs or even across their years at the

Read More »
post-exam-review

Post-Exam Review Activity

Students correct missed questions on their exams and reflect on the reasons why the questions were missed. They examine their study strategies and exam preparation behaviors and then propose what they should do differently to improve the outcome on the next exam.

Read More »
responding to teacher feedback

Responding to Feedback via Cover Letter

The main assignment is a traditional research paper, in this case one for a psychology research methods course. Drafts of each of the paper’s four main sections are due separately and returned with teacher feedback. The final version of the paper is submitted with a

Read More »
Wikipedia assignments

Leveraging Wikipedia to Develop Students’ Writing Skills

In most courses with some sort of research writing assignment, there’s a strongly worded prohibition against using Wikipedia. IT’S NOT A RELIABLE SOURCE! And measured by academic standards, it’s not. But faculty members Frances Di Lauro and Rebecca Johinke at the University of Sydney see

Read More »
reflections about connections in learning

Reflections about Connections

Emily Gravett writes insightfully about the disconnect between instructor and student course goals. She’s writing about religion courses and how academic goals, such as “analyzing the historical, cultural, linguistic, literary, political and social contexts of religious beliefs and practices” are not the goals that motivate

Read More »
why do students procrastinate

Examining the Unexamined: Why Do Students Procrastinate?

“Even with years of teaching experience since then [grad school TA experience], there were still areas of my pedagogy that remained as they always had been—unexamined and essentially running on autopilot.” So writes Kevin Gannon in an excellent piece on redesigning his exams (<a href="https://chroniclevitae.com/news/1723-rethinking-my-exams"

Read More »
Student working on assignment at library.

Could Your Assignments Use a Tune-Up?

How do students think about assignments? A lot never get past the idea that they’re basically unpleasant things faculty make them do. What does interest a lot of students is finding out what the teacher wants in the assignment, not so much what the assignments

Read More »
learning assessment techniques

Three Learning Assessment Techniques to Gauge Student Learning

A learning assessment technique (LAT) is a three-part integrated structure that helps teachers to first identify significant learning goals, then to implement effectively the kinds of learning activities that help achieve those goals, and finally—and perhaps most importantly—to analyze and report on the learning outcomes

Read More »
Male Student in online chat

Improve Learning with Student Interviews

Interviews are a powerful yet underutilized learning device in higher education. There are thousands of experts available who would be more than willing to add interesting material to your courses. While it is not very practical to fly those people in to speak in a

Read More »
Archives
2026 Teaching Professor Conference

Get the Latest Updates

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

2026 Health Professions Educators Conference