Effective course design begins with understanding the process of thinking and learning. These processes are commonly termed "metacognition." Metacognition includes a critical awareness of one’s ...

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 ...

A teacher who wanted to shift from assessing compliance to assessing students’ thinking shares the tweaks she made in her ...

In higher education, particularly with my graduate students, students occasionally focus on the individual points of an assignment rubric instead of stepping back and looking holistically at the ...

It is good teaching practice to be clear and transparent about the purpose, task, and criteria for assignments and learning activities. This includes communicating with students about what is and is ...

Generative AI is reshaping how students read, write, problem-solve, and generate ideas across disciplines. Some faculty try to “AI-proof” assignments, while other faculty design with AI in mind: ...

Travis Grandy is a PhD student in Composition and Rhetoric at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Find him on Twitter @travisgrandy or at his website. I work with a lot of instructors who use ...

Writing is a valuable educational tool for learning. In the classroom, writing can help students grapple with and understand content more deeply and help students learn disciplinary ways of knowing ...

Design thinking: It started as an academic theory in the 60’s, a notion of starting to look at broader types of challenges with the intention and creativity that designers use to tackle their work. It ...

Assignments: Make Them Effective, Engaging, and Equitable. At their best, assignments are one of the most important learning experiences for students in a course. Students grapple with course content, ...