Teaching Commons > Teaching Guides > Assignment Design

Assignment Design

  • Strategies

    Strategies

    Here's a short list of some general assignment design strategies that apply to a wide variety of disciplines.

  • Aligning with Learning Goals

    Aligning with Learning Goals

    When we’re clear about our goals for student learning, we can then choose assignments that ask students to do work that will likely result in their achievement of those goals.
  • Critical Thinking

    Critical Thinking

    Critical thinking is a catchall phrase used to describe the ability of students to think for themselves, to reason well, and to approach problems and issues in a systematic and logical manner.
  • Reading

    Reading

    The following ideas and resources are intended to help faculty members build on course readings effectively and thoughtfully.
  • Writing

    Writing

    If your course goals include helping your students learn to write in discipline–appropriate ways or write to think through and learn course content—or both—designing effective writing assignments is then a necessary and crucial aspect of your course planning.
  • Deterring Plagiarism

    Deterring Plagiarism

    A number of strategies for deterring plagiarism are discussed, including asking your students to write about current topics relevant to your course and staging essay assignments throughout the quarter.

  • Integrative Learning

    Integrative Learning

    ​Integrative learning occurs when students make connections among ideas and experiences in order to transfer learning to new contexts.​