Faculty Collaboratives Assignments and Signature Work Webinar – December 17, 2015
Susan Albertine, Introduction:
 The goal of Faculty Collaboratives is to invite growing numbers of faculty into collaboration for
student success. Specifically, we want to make it possible for all educators to participate in large
scale projects that advance liberal education.
 Pat Hutchings from National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) will lead
Why focus on assignments? They provide occasions for faculty to walk the talk about outcomes and
assessment. The goal of the webinar: explore how to get power from assignments for the sake of
one’s own courses and for the larger reform effort.
Pat Hutchings: Background Information
 NILOA: http://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org Mission: discover and share ways that
academic programs and institutions can use assessment data to strengthen undergraduate
education and improve students’ learning. NILOA has noted growing support among faculty for this
work.
 NILOA is interested in leadership. Important to note that NILOA emphasizes quality of learning
rather than compliance.
 NILOA has been working with Lumina on the DQP and Tuning (disciplinary cousin to the DQP) in
support of mission above. NILOA is harvesting DQP work in the field. See http://degreeprofile.org
 DQP serves as a universal translator for learning outcomes and assessment. Campuses are using the
DQP to:
o Clarify and align outcomes
o Map curriculum
o Rethink assessment
o Focus on assignments
o Address success of transfer students
 Noting importance and intellectual attraction of assignment design, NILOA turned to the field,
brought faculty together to work on assignment design in meetings calls called “charrettes”
 A charrette is an intense and creative design effort in a short period time
 Work on assignments from series of charrettes is archived in NILOA’s assignment library
http://www.assignmentlibrary.org
 Library currently has 50+ assignments and is searchable
 Anyone may now submit assignments on line as well
 Assignments in the library come from a wide range of fields, institutions, and degree levels
 Library observes principles of scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL). Each assignment is given a
citation in recognition that assignments are scholarly work.
 An outcome of the charrette process: When faculty come to a charrette, they want to take the
experience home and engage their colleagues
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Thinking about the Power of Assignments
 According to a recent NILOA survey, 84% of campuses have institutional outcomes, but often
they do not translate to the classroom and the assignment and assessment of those
assignments
 Assignments at their best aim for high-level outcomes and as such they are powerful sites of
assessment
 Assignments send signals to students about what kind of learning we expect
What is a Good Assignment?
 Intentional: Good assignments are designed with outcomes in mind. Think backwards design.
 Clear to students: Decode the discipline for students. Faculty are so immersed in the field that
they often cannot see the assignment through their students’ eyes
 Engaging: “Task as intriguing problem.” Unscripted. Pose a real-life problem that captures
students’ interest
 Respectful of and reflecting students’ knowledge and cultural wealth: equity minded
 Requiring formative feedback
 Scaffolded: Offering appropriate preparation and guidance
 Linked with other assignments. An assignment is not an island! Assignments can relate to each
other, even across classes and years, to create a more coherent learning pathway. They help
faculty make the move from “my work” to “our curriculum.”
 Ideas from webinar participants:
o Include explanation of how the exercise will be evaluated
o Assignments exist in context. The assignment will not work unless we’re tuned in to
what students need to succeed at the assignment
o Should work for students who come at the assignment in different ways
o Should nonetheless allow students to take risks and experience the discomfort that
learning also prompts
Models for Campus Work on Assignments: Assignments are powerful sites for collaboration
 Think about how to move from working on assignments individually, to a wider circle of people
working on assignments in collaboration, to building capacity for signature work
o Offer different ways for people to enter into work. What works will depend on
institutional context.
o Start where people are, with assignments they are already working on
o Look at student work
o Define faculty broadly: adjuncts, librarians, student affairs staff
o Involve students
o Take advantage of existing support structures
o Collaborate across campus, with other campuses, with employers
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Resources
 Quality Collaboratives: http://www.aacu.org/qc
 Peter Ewell: The Degree Qualifications Profile: Implications for Assessment
http://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org/documents/EwellDQPop1.pdf
 Cliff Adelman: To Imagine a Verb: The Language and Syntax of Learning Outcomes Statements
http://www.learningoutcomeassessment.org/documents/Occasional_Paper_24.pdf
 Hutchings, Jankowski, & Ewell: Catalyzing Assignment Design on Your Campus
http://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org/documents/Assignment_report_Nov.pdf
 NILOA Assignment Library: www.assignmentlibrary.org
Closing Comments
 A focus on assignments is important in its own right, but it’s also a doorway into thinking about
pedagogy, assessment, guided learning pathways, and signature work.

NILOA resources about “procedures” for a charrette, how-to guide.
http://www.assignmentlibrary.org/uploaded/files/Questions_to_Ask_About_an_Assignment.pdf

The Resources page on NILOA’s website has information on charrettes. NILOA welcomes
feedback on what else would be helpful.
http://www.assignmentlibrary.org/uploaded/files/Faculty%20Charrette%20Participant%20List%
20of%20Other%20Desirable%20Characteristics%20of%20Assignments%20doc.pdf
September/ October Change magazine article by several NILOA authors, including Pat
Hutchings, titled “Beyond Compliance.” See
http://www.changemag.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/2015/SeptemberOctober%202015/assessment_full.html
Change will also publish a new article on NILOA’s work in a forthcoming issue.
Tuning is also an occasion to come together and look at “assignments as doorways.”
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