Effective Assignment Submission in Online classes

In the current scenario of Covid19 pandemic, faculty and students have been forced to adapt to online instruction and classes. As there is no face to face instruction and learning, many a time, faculty face difficulties concerning the instructions given for assignment / project submission and the actual output submitted by the student.

A few problems encountered are that students overlook vital elements of the questions, may not be able to understand the guidelines and generate work which the teacher may find disagreeable. This in turn leads to loss of time and learning.

J. Hattie found that teachers who clearly communicate their expectations have improved student outcomes with a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.77).

In this short article, we look at a few suggestions which will help both teachers and students in resolving this issue.

1. Clearly specify the word limit/page limit to students

For example: When we ask students to write short answers to questions.

It is imperative that we clearly specify if short answer is one sentence or 3 sentences or 50 to 75 words etc. as students may not understand what the teachers expect and they may write anywhere from one word to one page.

Similarly, for descriptive questions or essay type questions, students may not know the number of pages they have to write, and the length of the answers required.

2. Content of assignments/answers

As teachers, all of us have seen student assignments and answers where there is no direction or flow in the written content of students. It is very helpful if a clear guidance in this regard is given to students.

For example, a teacher could provide a simple template for students for a descriptive long answer questions: Definition; Description; Application; Conclusion.

Say for a question “Write a note on Binary search trees (BST)”: Definition of a BST, Description of a BST, how the search in a BST, importance of BST.

3. Language and references

In the case of project reports and research reports, some of the students write the description of their project work in first person. It is necessary that we tell the students in advance that the reports have to be given in third person.

Similarly, the vocabulary that needs to be used in such reports and the format of the references and the citations should be clearly specified as well.

4. Rubrics/Grading Scheme

Rubrics help the teachers to come up with a clear marking scheme for the assignments and help students to complete assignments as per the expectations of the instructors. We need to ensure that there is clarity in each area of the rubrics.

For example: For a student to get 3 out of 5 marks for a question, clearly specify the minimum and maximum requirements- say minimum of two errors and not more than four errors.

The above few components help to develop a framework which in turn will result in a good quality student output.

References

Coker, D. When the Directions Are the Problem, Faculty Focus, 2020

Hattie, J. The Applicability of Visible Learning to Higher Education. Scholarship of teaching and Learning in Psychology, 1(1),79, 2015