Using Low Stakes Assignments for Teaching

Teaching and Training Tips

Teaching college students has been my passion for more than 15 years. When I started, the “sage on the stage” lecture style of teaching was considered the accepted manner of teaching. That was how I learned in college; I listened and the instructor lectured. That seemed to work fine at the time.

Now, with Gen Y and Z students, lecturing is not working well. Students want to be actively engaged in their learning. Listening to lectures is boring and does not engage or capture their attention. Thus, I am learning new ways to teach and to create courses for these students.

One method that I found to be effective is to provide weekly assignments that build towards the final project, such as short papers or quizzes. This works better than providing one midterm and one final exam. The papers enable me to provide feedback during the semester so that students learn how to improve their work.

These shorter essays are examples of what is known as low-stakes assignments. Here is an article from DePaul University about how to use low-stakes assignments for college classes: https://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-guides/feedback-grading/Pages/low-stakes-assignments.aspx

What types of low-stakes assignments do you use when teaching college students? I look forward to reading your replies!

Sincerely, Dr. Fisher