What is TILT?

An important strategy to educating adult learners is to effectively communicate to students the importance of assignments and why they are being asked to complete them. If you tell students not just WHAT they are supposed to do in an assignment, but also WHY they are doing it and HOW they know if they are doing it well, they typically perform better. These components (known as task, purpose, and criteria) are what make up the pillars of assignment transparency.

Teaching with transparency helps students understand the why and how of their learning. Research from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Transparency in Learning and Teaching Project (TILT) has shown that when students understand the task, its purpose, and the criteria for evaluating their work, they are more motivated and feel the work is more relevant.

Check out the brief explanation of each major component of TILT from the project founder, Mary Ann Winkelmes.

1. Purpose

Explain to students the skills and knowledge that they are supposed to gain or practice through completing the assignment. The best assignments align with overall course outcomes, so this is a great place to check that your classwork is in alignment with your course objectives. You might also remind students that skills and knowledge gained in assignment completion might be useful beyond the classroom - in other classes, in the field, and in their professional lives after college.

2. Task

Define what the student should do or perform. This is likely the area that most faculty already do well.

3. Criteria for Success

Define the characteristics of a successful finished product. For some assignments this might take the form of examples, or better yet, annotated examples discussing strengths, encouraging students to go beyond simply copying structures. Other assignments might lend themselves better to rubrics, or checklists of grading criteria with explanations of the grading criteria. This allows the students to get a greater sense of your expectations on the assignment.

What are the effects?

The emerging research has shown that all students benefit from the additional transparency in assignment design, but that underserved students in particular do better. The initial findings include improvements not only in course grades, but also in a sense of belonging to the college. Students who were the most likely to struggle, perform best when faculty breakdown the "hidden" agendas of assignments and don't assume that all students have a familiarity with academic expectations. Essentially, transparency can help close the achievement gap.

Summary of Research:

Lead by Mary-Ann Winkelmes at UNLV, a 2015 study researched the effects of a teaching intervention – using transparent assignments – at seven minority serving institutions. Thirty five faculty who taught more than one section of a class compared the performances of the control group (receiving regular assignments) and the experimental group (receiving two revised, transparent take-home assignments). 1,180 students were involved, and the students whose assignments were transparent and problem-centered made “gains in three areas that are important predictors of students’ success: academic confidence, sense of belonging, and mastery of the skills that employers value most when hiring.” Best of all, while all students benefited from the increased transparency, at-risk students (low income, first generation, underrepresented) saw greater benefits, making significant gains in closing the achievement gap. Another study of 1,143 UNLV students showed a significant increase in persistence in freshmen receiving transparent assignments. Additional studies are ongoing.

For a full report, see Peer Review, Winter/Spring 2016. You can read more about it and the work that UNLV has completed (https://tilthighered.com/ or get a great overview at https://www.aacu.org/peerreview/2016/winter-spring/Winkelmes

Click Next to get a unique perspective from SCC faculty Erin Huebener and Angela Rasmussen