Wednesday, May 19, 2010

What we put in we get out

What comments did you hear being made about your colleagues’ assignments?
The most recurring comments about the assignments were that they are over ambitious and that they are not clear enough. In general we want assignments to be versatile, and therefore, we tend to have assignments cover multiple learning objectives. This is a mistake. If there’s something we have learned is that is better to have multiple short assignments with each having a clearly defined goal, rather than few large assignments with broad goals. We have also learned that is fundamental to have clear and concise instructions for our assignments. The comments stressed out the importance of clarity.

What comments did you hear being made about your assignment?

Two main comments were given to my new assignment. The first comment was a positive one; the assignment has a narrow learning objective, a fundamental first step that future assignments can use to built upon and expand. The second comment was a constructive criticism on the clarity of the assignment. The goal set for the assignment and the goal stated in the assignment do not quite match; the assignment goal is clear and narrow but the goal description for the assignment is broad. Other parts of the assignment, such as the instructions, were not as clear as they should have been. I need to revise the assignment for clarity.

What did the workshop make you think about when it comes to writing clear and detailed assignments?
The workshop made me realize the importance of clarity in assignments. Clarity may seem as something secondary to the content of the assignment, but the workshop demonstrated that both are equally important. Writing clear and detailed assignments is so fundamental because it will directly reflect on the work that the students hand in: the quality and effort of the assignment instructions will reflect on the assignments the students give back.

No comments:

Post a Comment