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Transparent assignments (TILT)

Rewrite an assignment so students can see, before they start, why it matters, exactly what to do, and what good work looks like. It is a one-hour change aimed at the students who are least likely to already know the unwritten rules.

Emerging evidenceWorks with or without AIIn personLive onlineSelf-paced onlineAny class sizeUnder an hour to set up

What it is

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) is a framework for writing assignments so that three things are visible to students: the purpose (which skills the work builds and why they matter), the task (what to do, step by step, and what to avoid), and the criteria for success (what good work looks like, often shown with an annotated example).1

It does not change what you teach or how hard the assignment is. It changes how much of the hidden curriculum a student has to guess.

Evidence and fit at a glance

Emerging evidence

A multi-institution pilot reported statistically significant gains, with medium to large effect sizes, especially for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students. The lead author developed the framework, and I did not find independent randomized trials in the searches done for this page, so the evidence is labeled emerging.

How evidence is labeled

  • Set-upAbout an hour per assignment for a rewrite. You can start with one assignment.
  • Class timeFive minutes of class time to walk through the new assignment.
  • DeliveryIn person, Live online, Self-paced online
  • Class sizeAny class size
  • AI roleWorks with or without AI

When it works, and when it doesn’t

Best when

  • Students are unsure what an assignment is for or what counts as good work, as in many introductory courses.
  • Your students include many first-generation, low-income, or underrepresented students, who are the group the pilot reported the largest benefits for.
  • The assignment is already well aligned with a learning outcome and you want it to land more clearly.
  • You want a low-cost change you can make and test on a single assignment.

Weak when

  • The assignment's purpose is unclear to you too. Clear wording cannot fix a task that is not tied to an outcome. Fix the design first.
  • The point of the task is for students to figure out the problem structure themselves. Spelling out every step can remove the thing you want to assess.
  • You expect wording alone to close large gaps. The evidence is early and comes from one project.
  • The transparency lives only in a long syllabus. Students need to see it with the assignment.

How to do it

  1. Pick one assignment.Choose a take-home assignment students often get wrong or do not start.
  2. Write the purpose.Name the skills and knowledge the assignment builds, and how they connect to later work in the course or beyond it.
  3. Write the task.List what to do, in order. Say what to avoid. If your course has rules about AI, state what is allowed and why in this section.
  4. Write the criteria.Give a rubric or checklist and, if you can, an annotated example of strong work.
  5. Walk through it in class.Five minutes, with questions. Then compare how students do against a previous term, and ask two survey questions about clarity and confidence.

With AI and without

Without AI

No AI is needed. The rewrite is a writing task you can do in a word processor.

With AI

AI can draft a purpose-task-criteria version of your existing assignment for you to edit, and it can read your draft as a student would and list questions it would still have. You decide what the purpose and criteria really are, because a model cannot know what you want students to learn. State your AI rules in the task section so students see them with the work.

What the research says

What the studies found

In a pilot from a project of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, instructors at several institutions gave students two transparently designed assignments, with comparison sections taught the same term. The study reported that the intervention improved student success, especially for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students, with statistically significant results and a medium to large effect size.2

Students in the transparent sections reported gains in academic confidence, a sense of belonging, and mastery of skills that employers value, according to a summary of the pilot on the project's research page. Surveys and direct assessment of student work were used.2

The framework

The framework and its use across whole institutions are described in an edited guide to implementing the transparency framework to improve learning and retention.1

Pedagogical justification, ready to paste

Use this in a lesson plan, syllabus, or course-design form. Replace the [bracketed] parts with your own course details. Check the claims against the references before you submit.

One-sentence version

Major assignments are written using the TILT framework, which states the purpose, task, and criteria for success, because a multi-institution pilot reported statistically significant gains of medium to large effect in student success, especially for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students.2

Full rationale

To make expectations visible to every student, major assignments are written using the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework. Each assignment states its purpose (the skills it builds and why they matter), the task (the steps to follow and what to avoid), and the criteria for success, with a rubric and, where possible, an annotated example.1 In a multi-institution pilot, instructors who gave students two transparently designed assignments reported statistically significant gains in student success, of medium to large effect size, especially for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students.2 Because this evidence is early and comes from one project, the course checks its own results by comparing assignment scores and short student surveys on clarity and confidence with a previous term.

Learning outcome
Students will be able to [verb + skill] on [assignment] and explain how it connects to [course outcome].
Evidence of learning
[Assignment scores] against the rubric, compared with a previous term, plus a short survey on clarity of expectations and confidence.
Learning activity
[Assignment] rewritten with purpose, task, and criteria sections plus an annotated example, walked through in class for five minutes.

The copy buttons paste plain text. The pasted version renumbers the references from 1 and includes them with a source line, so it works on its own. The numbers shown here match the reference list below.

Limits of the evidence

  • The best-known evidence comes from one project whose lead author developed the framework. The pilot used faculty-run comparisons and included student surveys.
  • I did not find independent randomized trials in the searches done for this page. That absence is a limit of this search, not proof that none exist.
  • Results for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students are reported as larger benefits, but the pilot's details beyond the abstract are not reproduced here.
  • Transparency will not repair an assignment that is poorly aligned with its outcome.

Questions faculty ask

What does TILT stand for?

Transparency in Learning and Teaching. The core is three statements on each assignment: purpose, task, and criteria for success.

Does making an assignment more transparent lower its rigor?

No. TILT changes how clearly expectations are communicated, not how demanding the work is. The pilot reported gains in student success.

How do I handle AI rules in a transparent assignment?

State them in the task section: what students may use AI for, what they may not, and why. This is a practical use of the framework rather than a finding from the cited research.

References

  1. Winkelmes MA, Boye A, Tapp S, eds. Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership: A Guide to Implementing the Transparency Framework Institution-Wide to Improve Learning and Retention. Stylus Publishing; 2019.
  2. Winkelmes MA, Bernacki M, Butler J, et al. A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students' success. Peer Rev. 2016;18(1/2):31-36.

About this page

Written by Jesse Rogers, Learning Lab Coordinator, Palm Beach State College. Last updated October 15, 2026.

AI disclosure. Model used for research, drafting, editing, and verification: claude-sonnet-5-5 (Claude, by Anthropic). The author is responsible for every claim and citation.

How it was checked. Bibliographic details were checked against DOI records. Numbers and findings were checked against abstracts or open full texts. Where that was not possible, the page says so. See the method page.

What I could not confirm.

  • The 2016 article's end page (36) and the full author list were not independently confirmed; the start page (31), volume, and issue were. Outcome details beyond the abstract (confidence, belonging, employer-valued skills) come from a secondary summary of the pilot, not the article's full text.

License. CC BY 4.0. Share and adapt it with credit. This is an independent project and is not an official resource of Palm Beach State College.

Corrections. If you find an error, message me on LinkedIn and I will check it and fix it.

Cite this page (AMA). Rogers J. Transparent assignments (TILT). Learn With Jesse. Published October 15, 2026. Updated October 15, 2026. Accessed [date]. https://learnwithjesse.com/techniques/transparent-assignments/