September 4, 2026
Do students understand your assignments?
This semester, we'll look at our Teaching Minute topics through the lens of the Critical Teaching Behaviors (CTB) Framework, developed by Lauren Barbeau and Claudia Cornejo Happel. This research-based framework identifies six categories of effective teaching behaviors:
Align, Include, Engage, Assess, Integrate Technology, and Reflect.
This week's topic maps to the assess category.
TILT Your Assignments
What is TILT?
At its core, the TILT model of assignment design helps students understand your assignments by decoding or externalizing implicit expectations. For example, not all students may understand what a “thoughtful analysis” means. A “TILTed” assignment uses plain language to explain what students are being asked to do, why the assignment matters, what steps they need to take, and what successful work looks like.
Extensive research has demonstrated that if instructors TILT several assignments in a course, student learning outcomes improve with first-generation and underrepresented students benefitting the most. And you don’t need to redesign your entire course to use this model with beneficial results. You can use the TILT model at any time in the semester using these 3 steps:
- State the purpose of the assignment
Help students see the why. Students don’t always see how an assignment fits into the big picture. By clearly explaining its purpose, you help students to connect the dots between your course goals and this assignment. - Break down the tasks
TILT encourages writing explicit, step-by-step instructions so that students clearly understand what to do and where to find resources to help them do it. - Provide a clear path for success
Simply state how students can meet your expectations for successful assignment completion. Providing a rubric, a checklist, and/or samples of student work gives students the tools to self-assess their own work.
Human first. Then GenAI.
The human-first approach: talk with students!
A basic but sometimes overlooked strategy is to ask your students how well they understand your assignments. Checking whether you are on the same page as your students before they start working saves time and effort for everyone. Make time in class to have students go over the directions and grading criteria, identifying key terms they need to know to be successful.
GenAI: explore using Copilot
In The Science of Learning Meets AI, Lewis Ludwig and Todd Zakrajsek suggest that Gen AI can be helpful for rewording assignment directions to align with the TILT model. They suggest using the prompt:
Identify every place in this assignment where I use expert language or have implicit expectations that might confuse students. For each one, provide:
- What I probably mean by this term or phrase
- Why students may misunderstand it
- A clearer way to express the same expectations without reducing rigor
Or you could use a simple prompt such as “Using the Transparency in Teaching and Learning framework, revise this assignment."
To check what AI produces, look at whether it generated language that meets your standards? Did it identify confusion points for students that you’ve seen before? If you do choose to use what AI produced, revise it so that it’s written in your voice.
Have you tried using AI to TILT an assignment? If so, we’d love to hear from you! (ctl@uvm.edu) What were your results after you uploaded your assignment to GenAI? What prompt did you provide? Did you use what was generated?
Let us know!
The Center for Teaching & Learning
ctl@uvm.edu
Book a consult with us
www.uvm.edu/ctl