Prepping or updating your course? Use a transparency approach

One of the best teaching practices I have adopted is to use a transparent approach (e.g., Winkelmes et al., 2015). In a nutshell, this involves “lifting the curtain” and being more explicit about assignments and how students can be successful. This process can be especially helpful for students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds or who are first-generation students.

Traditionally, the focus of this approach is on class assignments, but an important benefit is that it can be applied to different aspects of one’s teaching. In the sections below, I describe how this approach can be used for:

• creating assignments,
• designing a course (especially when flexibility is needed), and
• informing psychology students about how to succeed.

At the assignment level, the key idea is to be explicit about the purpose, task, and evaluation criteria (for an example assignment, see Copeland, Winkelmes, and Gunawan, 2018). The purpose is the reason why you are using the assignment. What is the point of it? What skills will students develop by completing it? Expressing this can increase motivation by making it clear to students why the assignment is worthwhile.

Because instructors create assignments, the task might be crystal clear to them. However, it might not be obvious to students. If the task is not described clearly enough, then students might have to guess or make assumptions about the assignment.

For the criteria, instructors should be explicit about grading. For example, will APA formatting mistakes affect the score? What parts of the assignment are worth the most points? A great way to express the criteria is by sharing a rubric or possibly past examples of student work. And finally, a well-designed assignment with clear scoring criteria can be a useful tool for assessing student achievement in the course.

Instructors can also think bigger than assignments by reflecting on the purpose of the course and the desired student learning outcomes. A helpful technique is to write out the broad course goals, and then include the specific knowledge and skills that students should be able to demonstrate by the end of the course. Then, think about how the learning experiences contribute to the achievement of those student learning outcomes. To be transparent, you need to share this with students. An added bonus is that this process can help instructors refine assessment practices in their courses and program.

This approach can lead instructors to think more deeply about learning experiences. Do they help students achieve the intended learning outcomes? When I redesigned one of my courses, I realized that I was only using a particular assignment because someone had suggested it years ago. However, while it was a good assignment, it did not really align with my specific course goals or drive outcome achievement (for an example, see Winkelmes et al., 2015).

Applying a transparent approach can also be helpful when you need to be flexible with the course structure. For example, instructors might alleviate student uncertainty by being clear to them (at the beginning of the course) how assignments, activities, and grading would change if the course format is altered (e.g., from in-person to an online format, or vice versa).

A final way to apply transparency is with students’ interest in pursuing psychology. In liberal arts pathways such as psychology, most students are not going to end up in the same career; there are a variety of options available. Because of that, instructors need to communicate to their students the skills they can acquire in psychology and the wide variety of career opportunities to which they can be applied.

To help students achieve success, psychology instructors should be transparent by informing them of experiences that can be helpful (e.g., research involvement) and skills that need to be developed (e.g., communication). At my institution we inform students (when taking their first psychology courses) of the opportunities that are out there and what they can do to achieve success (Copeland and Houska, 2020). Before we did this, students often lacked direction, not knowing what they could do in psychology or what resources were available to them.

I want to wrap this up by sharing my own experience with applying a transparency approach. When I first learned about it, I was actually skeptical—I thought that it was too simple and that it would not make much of an impact. However, after I applied it, my skepticism disappeared—student feedback was very positive, and I saw increased student success.

David E. Copeland (along with Jeremy Houska) is the author of “Success as a Psychology Major,” a powerful resource for psychology students. He earned his PhD from the University of Notre Dame and is now an associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has collaborated on the Transparency in Learning and Teaching project with a book chapter, teaching forum article, “Chronicle of Higher Education” article, conference presentation, instructional video, teaching workshops, and revised course assignments. He has earned three teaching awards, an outstanding mentorship award, and a faculty advisor award.