Transparency in Learning and Teaching
For both formative and summative assessments, letting students know why they should do what you are asking them to do is a little thing that can make a huge difference. Completeness and clarity of instructions are critical, as students may not be comfortable asking questions about an assignment – especially in class. If you are only answering individual questions privately, students won’t benefit from your answer when another student asks the same question. Finally, providing students with meaningful criteria for what a successful assignment looks like can calm anxiety about idiosyncratic grading.
Dr. Mary-Ann Winklemas’ Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) approach was originally designed to assist first-generation, low-income, and traditionally minoritized college students. For more information on the Transparency in Learning and Teaching approach, see the TILT FAQ on the TILT Higher Ed website.
TILTed assignments
While transparency in learning and teaching includes a range of strategies, we are focusing on the TILT method of assignments which puts the focus on how and why students are learning and showing their learning in a particular way.
TILTing your assignment involves clearly explaining your teaching and learning processes in student-facing language (using you/your) and avoiding unnecessary jargon or academic-ese. This approach encourages faculty to explain the Purpose (why they are doing the assignment), the Task (what exactly they need to do), and the Criteria (how to succeed) of assignments in a way that students can understand and connect with.
The following video features Dr. Mary-Ann Winklemas describing the three parts of the TILT format.
Purpose
The first and most important part is the Purpose. Many students, especially first-generation students, don’t consider that instructors design assignments and activities to help them learn particular things in a particular way. Thinking about it as the “learning purpose” can help you describe it in a way that is more personally meaningful to students. What will they gain from completing the assignment? Being told the purpose is basically “because I said so” doesn’t improve motivation and effort. However, knowing that it is helping them get to something bigger and more relevant to their life outside of class, does.
Even though the TILT model focuses on assignments, describing the purpose and relevance of other learning materials can also help improve student motivation and engagement. For example, when assigning a reading, it’s helpful to briefly describe what you want students to focus on in that reading, what you expect them to learn from it, and how that reading connects to other readings, activities, or assignments. Making the learning purpose of the materials explicit helps students recognize that the course is purposefully designed to help them reach specific goals.
Task
The second part is the Task, which needs to be explained clearly and w