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Pollak Library

Open Pedagogy

Renewable Assignment Examples

To help you start thinking about how to implement renewable assignments in your course, here are some common traditional assignments paired with a renewable option:

Traditional Assignment Renewable Assignment
Discussion board posts                         Social annotation using tools like Hypothes.is
Research papers Contributing to an open textbook or Wikipedia page
Posters or presentations                              

Creating tutorials/learning objects for other students
Personal reflections Case studies to be used in future classes

You may be able to turn your existing assignments into renewable assignments by shifting the audience. Rather than students curating resources, images, voice threads, or asking questions of you as the instructor, they can turn this work into something that benefits the whole course.

This can include:

  • Adding materials to a test bank for current and future classes to use.
  • Collecting a list of common problems or misunderstandings of course content. 
  • Creating a list of tips or best practices that students can use in the courses

All of these small changes can have a big impact on students. When their work has life beyond their grade, they can find meaning in their work, which will help them make deeper connections to the course materials and the world around them. 

Renewable Assignment Collections

These resource collections contain a wide variety of renewable assignments from multiple disciplines, but these lists are not exhaustive, so you may not find exactly what you need. If you need assistance with brainstorming how to transform your course assignments please feel free to reach out using my contact information in the box to the left.