Helping Students Succeed on Writing Assignments in Asynchronous Courses
When we give writing assignments in in-person courses, students have informal opportunities in class to ask clarifying questions about why they are completing the assignment, about our expectations, and about how they should approach their work. In asynchronous courses, where there are no class meetings, students don’t have the benefit of these informal interactions with us. This means we need to be much more explicit in communicating assignments, and we also need to provide structure that will help students approach their work. When we take time to help students understand our assignments and how to complete them, we help them feel less isolated in their efforts and more motivated to engage with the work we are asking them to do.
This resource describes two strategies for supporting online students to succeed on writing assignments: using transparent assignment design and helping students plan their work on assignments.
Make your assignments transparent
In online courses, it is especially important to provide clear written guidance for students that will help them understand how to prepare for and complete the work of an assignment. This approach, which is called transparency, helps online students feel more capable and more motivated to do the work an assignment requires. Transparency also helps students produce better work, which makes the job of grading and providing feedback easier (and more pleasant!) for us. It also reduces the likelihood of plagiarism because we are ensuring that students feel like they are able to be successful by doing their own work.
A transparent assignment description makes explicit to students the purpose of the work you are asking them to do, the skills and knowledge they will need to use to complete the assignment, the steps to success, and ways they can evaluate their work. Each of these elements is described below, along with demonstrative examples.
Element 1: Purpose
When we design assignments for our students, we usually have a clear sense of why we are asking them to do the work and how that work will benefit them. Students can benefit greatly from recognizing this value: when they see the intrinsic value and purpose of an assignment, they approach the work thoughtfully rather than doing the work superficially as a hoop to jump through. We often share this purpose informally when we present assignments to students in our in-person classes, but we don’t always make that part of the assignment. In online courses, we must include this in the assignment descriptions so that students can see how the work they will do will help them learn in our class, help them be more developed college students, and will help them in their life outside of the university. When students know that we have created meaningful work for them to do, they are much more likely to do that work on their own.
Example of a Purpose Section
This assignment asks you to draft an analysis of a case study of a child using two key frameworks in the field of human development. One of the goals of our course is not just to learn about theories in the discipline of human development but to use them to support the development of children. And whether you go on to work with children or just to live as a caring adult in a world full of children, this assignment gives you an opportunity to practice observing, analyzing, and responding to a real situation in which you can play a crucial role in a child’s life. This careful and thoughtful work will also help you hone your critical thinking skills, which will contribute to your overall success at the university and in life.
Element 2: Skills and Knowledge
In online courses, students often participate in discussions with their peers, take short quizzes, watch lecture videos and answer questions, or do other small assignments that help them develop the knowledge and skills they will need to use on writing assignments. For example, these assignments may require them to draw on specific concepts, frameworks, or models they have been quizzed on or used in their discussions. They may be developing specific writing skills when they respond to questions, write drafts of their work, or engage in discussion forums. While the connection between that preparatory work and the assignments we give them is usually obvious to us, we need to use our assignment descriptions to make that connection clear to students.
In the skills and knowledge section of a transparent assignment, we help students make the connection between their developing skills and knowledge and the work they will do on that assignment. Remind students of the specific activities they’ve done and feedback they’re received that they will draw on to be successful on the assignment. Articulating these connections for students helps them be able to gather their previous work and thinking and apply it to the assignment. It also helps students realize that they can, in fact, complete the assignment on their own, reducing the likelihood that they will feel the need to cheat or plagiarize.
Example of a skills and knowledge section
As you do this assignment, you will apply the theories we’ve been studying in the last 4 weeks. These theories are family system theories, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, and Tatum’s theories of identity development. In your weekly reflections, you have been practicing applying these theories to scenarios. In your group discussions, you’ve used the theories to analyze scenarios, identify problems, and propose solutions. In this assignment you will analyze a longer and more complex case study of a child and her family. You will draw on the skills you are developing to analyze real-life situations using these different theories. You will also be practicing how to use two theories together to analyze a case. It will be helpful to you to review the feedback I’ve given you on your “Scenario Reaction” writing: you can use that feedback to think about how to improve your analytic work for this assignment.
Element 3: Steps for Success
Much of the work we do as experts is work we do automatically. When we give live lectures or demonstrations or engage students in discussion in in-person classes, we may seize on in-the-moment opportunities to explain some of these expert thinking steps in ways that can help students think about how to approach their own work. In asynchronous classes, we don’t have these opportunities. This means we need to be much clearer in our assignment descriptions about how students should approach their work.
Expert-like work involves preparatory steps, action steps, and metacognitive steps. A transparent assignment description makes these steps explicit to students so that they can make a successful attempt at the thinking and the work you want them to practice and demonstrate. In addition, a transparent assignment description specifies the mistakes that students should avoid. Providing this kind of detail helps online students feel supported in their work and more capable of succeeding. Students will be more enthusiastic and productive when they know what the assignment actually entails, and they will realize that they are capable of doing their own work.
Example of a steps for success section
Preparatory steps
1. Read this assignment description carefully and note where you have questions. Please post these any questions you have in the “Ask a Question” discussion board. By answering them there, I can help everyone understand the assignment fully.
2. Reread your informal writings about family system theories, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, and Tatum’s theories of identity development and note where you drew connections between those theories and where you showed differences between the theories.
3. Reread my comments on your “Scenario Reactions” writings and note for yourself my suggestions for ways to improve your analyses. Choose one suggestion and commit to using that in this assignment.
4. Read the case study “Keisha” at least twice. The first time, read for the gist: learn who the “characters” are and to get a sense of the events and timeline. The second time, read analytically, identifying what you think are the key problems in the case and then considering how the theories listed above can help you more fully analyze those problems. Make notes to record these new ideas.
Action steps
Focus and deepen your analysis by creating a two-part paper. The first part is your analysis of the case. In this part, you will identify what you consider to be the major problems faced by the child or family featured in the case and then analyze those problems using human development theories. Analysis here means using a theory to see more of the problem, to see particular factors of the problem, or to connect the problem to other contexts and issues. You’ll need to fully explain those theories as you use them to pick apart and more fully conceptualize those problems. Do not cite lectures or PowerPoint presentations: demonstrate your understanding of the course readings. Use at least three details from the case as evidence that the theories you identify in your analysis are actually at work here. So, for example, let us say that you feel a central problem in the case is that the child in the case is struggling to play productively with peers because she has different cultural concepts about play. You might decide that a specific theory about cultural psychology can help us understand that struggle. Be sure you fully explain your understanding of that theory and then apply it to the case. Then you might use two short excerpts from the case to show how the child in the case does or does not do things that the theory predicts or suggests. Do not spend lots of time in this section retelling the case. Your job here is to show how events in the case can be more fully understood using development theories.
In the second part of your paper, you will suggest one or more solutions to the problems you have identified in the case. These solutions should stem from your analysis of the problems and should also be shaped by your understanding of the theories you are using. Use three well-chosen pieces of evidence from the case to support your claim that these solutions will support the child in the case. Also in this second part, don’t just talk generally about your solution: propose a detailed, concrete, plan for action. The key here is detail: could a parent, teacher, or social worker follow your plan and would all her questions be answered if she read your case study analysis? Again, your plan should be fully grounded in the theories you are using in your analysis. In this section, you will also discuss what the possible consequences of your solution/s might be: I want to hear both the things you hope to have happen and the things that might not work so well.
It may help you if you write to an adult in the case. This will help you remember to be analytic and structured in your writing. This fictitious reader will need you to spell out the problems and the solutions in a well-organized way. She needs you to explain what is happening in the case using theories of human development in a clear way, and in such a way that she can really see how developmental principles are at work in this case. Your evidence should help her think (for example) “Oh yes I do see how cultural mismatch really is going on here!” If you think that this will help your writing, why not start out your paper this way, by addressing the adult who you’d like to read your analysis. Your writing will still be formal, but you will be focused on explaining what you understand in clear and detailed language.
Element 4: Criteria for Success
Assignment descriptions should articulate for students (and for ourselves) the necessary parts of an assignment and the levels of performance or achievement that they should aim for with each of these parts. Including a grading rubric as part of your assignment helps you think fully about what you are asking students to demonstrate in an assignment, and the rubric can be used by students to monitor their work. Designing rubrics takes significant time and energy, but it is a worthwhile investment because it helps clarify the assignment for you and your students. While it can be tempting to simply borrow rubrics from other sources, this is not a good idea because a rubric from another assignment won’t align with the assignment you have in mind.
Element 5: Submission Details
It’s easy for students to spend too much time focusing on formatting and submission worries rather than using their energy to do the meaningful thinking an assignment requires, so be sure to contain that information for them at the very end of your assignment description. Explain the following kinds of details to students: the style guidelines they should follow; font size; margins; file type; submission dates for drafts, feedback, final drafts; and where and how to submit their work (in class or on Brightspace or another platform). Be specific and detailed regardless of the kind of assignment you are giving students (papers, presentations, videos, artwork, etc.). Having all these logistical questions answered will make them feel comfortable and help them focus on the thinking they need to do, not its packaging.
Example of submission details
Your case study paper should be 5 pages in length. Use APA format, double-space your type, and use twelve-point font. APA style is used by scholars who work in psychology, education, and other social science fields. You should use it when you cite others’ words or work in your writing. Details about APA style can be found on the form “Writing in APA Style” under “Course Documents.” Include all your references in a bibliography at the end of your case study paper. Your assignment should be in Word (.docx). Submit your work by 4:59pm on October 15.
Help students use your assignments
Transparent assignments are essential for online courses, but students don’t always know how to use those assignments as resources. We can help them do this (and help them build crucial learning skills!) by prompting them to do the metacognitive, planful work that will help them regulate their own efforts and ultimately be successful. When students plan for how they will approach assignments, how they will use their preparatory work, and how they will use our feedback, they feel more motivated, more capable, and less overwhelmed by assignments. Not only does this helps them produce better work, but it also reduces the perceived need to cheat or plagiarize.
Help students respond more effectively to assignments by having them take some time when they receive an assignment to read it carefully, reflect on its value, and make a plan for how they will approach it. Students can do this work as part of an individual assignment that they submit to you, or they can do some of their planning work in collaboration with their peers in a discussion forum. Below are some examples of prompts that can guide students to plan in helpful ways.
Prompts to help students reflect on the value of an assignment
- How will completing this assignment prepare me for work I am required to do in other courses or in my major?
- How does the work of this assignment relate to goals I have for myself in college? Beyond college?
Prompts to help students plan their work on an assignment
- In what ways will this assignment draw on my strengths? How will I use these strengths to be successful?
- What do I expect will be most challenging as I complete this assignment? What resources (e.g., teacher, peers, course materials, outside resources, etc.) will I use to help me work through this challenge?
- What are two things I will do this week (by date) to begin working on this assignment?
- If I am not able to complete this assignment on time, what options will I discuss with my instructor (e.g., choosing a late submission date, choosing to submit part of the assignment on time, other options that work for your course)?
Not only will this kind of analysis and planning help ensure that students are reading assignments more carefully, it will also surface questions early on so that you can more effectively guide students through their work.
Make sure you refer students back to these plans and have them identify approaches that worked for them. You may even consider having them submit a short reflection memo along with their writing assignments in which they describe how they used their planning and think forward to how they will use what they’ve learned to be successful on future writing assignments.
Resources
Nilson, L. B. (2013). Creating self-regulated learners: Strategies to strengthen students’ self-awareness and learning skills. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Winkelmes, M. Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., & Weavil, K.H. (2016). A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students’ success. Peer Review, 18(1/2), 31-36.
Winkelmes, M., Boye, A., & Tapp, S., eds. (2019). Transparent design in higher education teaching and leadership: A guide to implementing the transparency framework institution-wide to improve learning and retention. Routledge.