Alternative Assignments
Whether you are tired of grading the same assignment over and over, your students are not excited about the assignment, or your students are turning to GAI to complete their assignment, rethinking how students who their learning and adding an alternative can motivate students and help you enjoy grading more.
Alternative Assignment Background
Alternative assignments is influenced by Universal Design for Learning’s element of Multiple Means of Action & Expression, research on authentic assessments and AI-resistant assignment design. Alternative assignments may include elements of engagement that allow for more creativity or an artistic component or other types of communication that students are likely to encounter in real world situations. Some have characteristics of what some refer to as renewable assignments, those that not thrown away after grading but can add value to the world, are shared with others, have value beyond knowledge, encourage ownership, incorporate feedback and/or provide foundation for a future students learning or careers. Others have referred to some of these assignments as the unessays.
If you'd like to take a different approach and invite students to critique GAI or integrate GAI into your assignments, you can go to this page to learn more and view examples.
Designing Alternative Assessments
Whether you are offering 1-2 options for students to choose for the same assignment or switching formats throughout the semester, you'll want to be sure that the learning goals are aligned and grading criteria is clear and consistent. Non-traditional formats can increase student anxiety so you'll want to be intentional about not having too many choices or no consistency across your course. You'll want to consider ways of supporting students by providing them examples, resources they could use, and defining criteria for success (e.g. a rubric or checklist) to help students understand the expectations.
- Define what learning objective(s) this assignment aligns with
- Consider the following elements while designing & be transparent with students:
- What elements make it authentic (e.g. realism, simulation, task complexity, etc.)?
- Will you or the student choose the format?
- Is this a quick assignment, a multi-class assignment or more of a semester-long project? If the later two, how will progress be monitored by students and/or instructor?
- What parts of the process / produce be graded? Who will provide the feedback (e.g. instructor, peer, self, GAI, combination, etc.)?
- Will students share their reflection on feedback and how it was used?
Resources for Further Exploration
- Learn more about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and
- View a on Authentic Assessments from the Help Professor
- View a to be more renewable
- authentic assessments
*Disclosure: This content was developed by LeighAnn Tomaswick. This example list was curated by visiting dozens of websites about authentic assessments and alternative assignments. The only time GAI was used was in the process of brainstorming (with Gemini) how to organize the list.