Renewable Assignments

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Design new content for current courses. (LO2)
• Investigate new forms of media to engage students. (LO3)

Renewable assignments provide students with opportunities to engage in meaningful work, add value to the world, and provide a foundation for future students to learn from and build upon. Renewable assignments are possible because of the permission to engage in the 5R activities granted by open educational resources (OER). Renewable assignments are an alternative to traditional, disposable assignments, which students throw away after they are graded. Watch the following video about open pedagogy and its benefits for faculty and students.

Examples of Renewable Assignments

• Content related to human resource policies and practices, including flyers, videos, podcasts, and training materials
• Accounting assignments that would show up in a job description: balance a budget, create a budge using grant funds, balancing payroll, proficiency in specific platforms like Quickbooks
• In education, building a lesson plan that maintains daily flow, develop open flow of communication with new people, completing thorough evaluations (sometimes creating the evaluations!)
• Nursing managers need someone who can updating written policies and procedures, train staff, develop an nursing organization structure
• In many fields, grant writing, sales, marketing, and other skills are desperately needed. So, if your students can develop social media campaigns or write grants, these are highly desirable skills!

Components of a Renewable Assignment

Below are the components of a potential renewable assignment and can be a formula to guide you to build one or as an assignment for a larger group of educators. An example of a renewable assignment is also shared below.

• The name and URL of the specific open resource with which the renewable assignment is designed to be used;
• A set of clear and complete instructions for completing the renewable assignment;
• A rubric for grading the renewable assignment (typically presented as a table) that clearly specifies:
  • at least three levels of possible performance (e.g., poor, acceptable, excellent),
  • the criteria by which the renewable assignment will be evaluated (e.g., use of supporting evidence),
  • a description of what performance looks like for each criterion at each level of performance (e.g., a “poor” rating for the criterion “use of supporting evidence” might read “no supporting evidence is provided”);
• Guidance to those who have adopted the specific open resource regarding how to use the renewable assignment;
• And a sample completed assignment, together with a completed rubric for the assignment, on which the sample assignment receives the highest rating for each criterion.
• Post your renewable assignment. License it with a Creative Commons license.

Example of a Renewable Assignment

Creative Assignment for HR 323 Safety and Health

• LO1: Show the components of a strong safety and health management program.
• LO2: Discover both the components and the overall structure of a safety and health management program.

Student Instructions:

1. Please review the following resource: Safety and Health Awareness in the Workplace by Wilbert Williams. Complete all seven sections in the resource.
2. Next, create one of the following, outlining [safety procedures for one task in a workplace relevant to you. For ideas you may consider looking at: Workplace Safety Procedures] Please refer to the rubrics below for complete assignment requirements.
   1. A two-page step-by-step document (minimum) that [details the steps to safely complete the selected task].
   2. A one-page infographic that [details the steps to safely complete the selected task]. Use Canva or Piktochart to create your graphic.
   3. A non-narrated video, less than one minute, that [details the steps to safely complete the selected task]. Use Kaltura or another video recording platform you are comfortable with using for this assignment.
   4. A three to five-minute podcast that [details the steps to safely complete the selected task]. Create using an approved platform, like Buzzsprout or Anchor.
3. Regardless of which format you choose, please apply an appropriate Creative Commons License so others can use your resource. If you are using YouTube, please also upload to it to YouTube with Creative Commons Licensing so others can use your resource.
4. View the rubrics for this assignment, to see the grading criteria.
5. To aid in the completion of this assignment, please view these examples:
   1. Infographic
   2. Video
      1. Rubrics grading the sample content

Instructor Information:

How Instructors should use this renewable assignment: use this assignment to assess the mastery of material covered in Week Two of HR 323 Safety and Health in place of the standard discussion forum.

1. The outline for this renewable assignment could be modified to meet the learning outcomes of different courses. For example, in MGT 363 there is discussion about conflict resolution. Students could view the resource Conflict Resolution and in place of the application at the end, create an infographic, video, written assignment, or podcast that demonstrates strategies for mediating conflict in the workplace.