2-Minute Mentor: Iterative Assignments
- What are iterative assignments?
- How can I implement them?
- How can these assignments deepen student learning?
Click below to watch CTE’s 2-Minute Mentor video on this topic:
Iterative Assignments video transcript (doc)
Advantages of using iterative assignments
- If students know that they can learn from their experience of the first assignment and demonstrate improvement on a revision, they have fewer reasons to be anxious and less rationale for misconduct.
- In a foundation course, in which your goal is to prepare students for further study in your field, it’s important that students learn as much as possible. No one benefits from students moving forward if there’s a substantial body of knowledge or a skill that hasn’t been learned.
- With iterative assignments, you have an opportunity to provide feedback and re-teach parts of the material that students showed they didn’t understand well.
- If you want to set a tone for your courses that learning is a shared goal, encouraging repeat work will go a long way toward establishing a climate that supports learning.
Finally, as academics, most work we care about (journal articles, grant proposals) is done over and over until it reaches a high level of quality. It seems odd that students should get just one try for their work.
More about iterative assignments
The following links provide more information related to iterative assignments:
These portfolios in the CTE Gallery illustrate the use of iterative assignments:
- Writing as a Primary Means for Learning—Ruth Ann Atchley
- Site in Architecture: Transforming a Lecture Course—Genevieve Baudoin
- The Evolution of a Term Project: Iterative Course Redesign to Enhance Student Learning—Andrea Greenhoot