How can you make sure you are transparent in your course expectations?

Transparency in your course expectations is heavily correlated to the greater Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) project. For more general information on TILT, please click through to this chapter of this toolkit: Transparency in Learning and Teaching – TILT – Hawkeye Introductory Course Toolkit (uiowa.edu)

Making sure that your students know exactly what to expect from your assignments and how they will be assessed with empower your students to succeed and will allow you to engage with the course materials honestly and openly with students.

How can you make your expectations transparent to your students?

Making sure your expectations are clear, concise, and consistent will help your students find success in your course and will make it easier for you to teach the class. Here are some ways in which this transparency can be extended towards student expectations for the course:

• Upon assigning your students a task, make sure to state clearly the goals and rationale behind the task. Make sure your students understand: why are we doing this assignment? What is the purpose for it? Define the learning benefits behind the task and the criteria for succeeding at it.
• Give examples of what you’re looking for from your students – share criteria for success and ask them to apply that criteria to their work as they complete their assignments.
• Make sure your grading system is clear and easily understandable. Ideally, use a mastery-based grading system, modifying your assignments and assessments to allow students to demonstrate mastery in the course material without need to apply a curve. If you still want to curve the grades, make sure that your curving rationale and method is clear and parsable for your students; this will help them know what to expect.
• If your assignment or assessment requires a rubric, make sure that it is publicly available to the students, ideally in the ICON site. Moreover, assure that your students have access to the rubric-based grading so they can understand the rationale behind the grade they receive.

What results can you expect from making your expectations more transparent in your course?

By incorporating principles of transparency and clarity into your large lecture course, especially in course expectations, you can assure your students that you are putting them first and foremost. It can be hard to quantify how this transparency is changing your course, but in a national study conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities they found that this type of transparency enhances student success at statistically significant levels, with the greater benefits going towards students who are historically underserved.

Courses at UI have found great success in moving from a curve-based to a mastery-based grading scheme. Specifically in MATH:1005 and MATH:1440, course objectives and expectations were clearly and concisely delivered to the students alongside a modification of previous norms in the course, moving to a mastery-based system. Students are now leaving these courses with a better grasp of the material, resulting not only in improved performance in the course but also in both concurrently-enrolled and downstream courses. This change has allowed students to gain more knowledge of the course materials, and they know exactly how and where mistakes were made, allowing them to improve in future assessment.

Who can help if you’re interested in incorporating transparency in expectations into your course?

If you would like to explore how you could use this in your course, please reach out to the Center for Teaching for assistance and guidance on how best to implement these activities.

For further reading, please consult the TILT Higher Ed website here: https://tilthighered.com/