The Human Touch: Embracing Open Pedagogy for Metacognition

We can’t AI-proof our assignments, so why not focus on building assignments that engage our human students?

The goalposts of what AI can produce move every week, so it’s unwise to solely focus on building assignments that out beat its current limitations. Instead, we need to use our limited time and resources to find ways to help our students learn by embracing assignments that matter to them.

Odds are you know how to craft an assignment that students will want to complete without AI. Most of us already do, but we’ve lost sight because something new has come along and made us question our relationship with our students.

Each year I invite students into the process of creating knowledge about our course by embracing some principles of open pedagogy on a local scale in a reusable assignment I’ve dubbed “Advice to Future Students”. Students get multiple opportunities in my first-year writing course to give future students of the course tips about how they might be successful in a forthcoming assignment, reading, or activity.

This student-teaching student approach to the course has been one of my favorite assignments. Sometimes students leave these tips as written notes, and that option matters for those students who are shy or suffer from a disability, but I encourage most of them to use Microsoft’s free Flip app to leave 60-90 seconds of video feedback for future members of the course and published with their consent under a CC-BY-SA license. This makes the assignment a living document for the class, one that is kept evergreen as former students leave new posts each year guiding future students.

These short 60-90 videos act like miniature lighthouses guiding ships away from the rocky parts of the shore, telling students what worked, what didn’t, how they planned, how they succeeded, and yes, how they tried but failed to achieve their potential. Those “look back” moments are some of the most powerful, and many of my students watching former students offering them tips about the course realize that their peers aren’t just sitting next to them, but have occupied the very same space months or even years before.

Here’s an example grid:

• Writ 102 Introduction to the Hybrid Course

Here’s what I like about this assignment:

Students Listen to Other Students:

• I can talk forever about the importance of an assignment or reading within my course and never reach certain students. It’s not about my delivery—it’s about my position as an authority figure. People like listening to their peers, and students are no different. They may actually learn more, and they will disclose particular knowledge to a fellow student that they wouldn’t necessarily do in the presence of their instructor.

  Student Reflection: They often discussed struggles I was currently experiencing and helped me realize that it was okay to be feeling that way and they offered advice on what to do about it.

It Helps Students Consider Purpose and Audience:

• When you ask your students to consider what a future student of the class would want to know, you are inviting them to think critically about taking what they’ve learned within the course and shape it into a message for an audience of their peers. Ask your students: what would they have wanted to know before starting the assignment/activity? Now that it is over, what could you tell a future student to help them prepare for it? Doing so invites students to claim control of their learning and shape a coherent message around it for an audience outside of their instructor.

  Student Reflection: I liked that I was able to get a sense of what I was going to struggle with from past students and get one on one advice from students that have been through the entire class before. I think these videos made me a lot less stressed, and I was able to learn how to go about assignments in the best way possible.

It Allows Students to Recoup Lost Labor in the Course:

• I stopped using the phrase “extra credit” some years ago when I shifted to labor-based grading. Now, if a student misses course work, they have the opportunity to recoup lost labor through short assignments, like the Advice to Future Students. Likewise, if a student wants to increase their overall grade, they can complete it as short supplemental labor. This means that students who participate are not just high-achievers looking to pad their grades, but also a mix of students who are struggling and using the opportunity to articulate what they found challenging. This provides a much more accurate snapshot of my actual class. Last fall, over 60% of my first-year writing students left at least one video for a future student. That’s amazing!

Giving Students Power Matters:

• The best part about the Advice to Future Students assignment is that it relies on intrinsic motivation. It’s a powerful mechanism, asking students what they really think about the course, the assignments, the readings, and how this impacted their learning. Students want to let people know what their experience was like. By inviting students to express their opinion about the course, I’m giving up some control as the teacher. It’s a small handoff of power — one we do each semester when evaluations roll in — but unlike evaluations, I’m not part of the audience. Students really value sharing their perspectives about the challenges they faced and how they successfully dealt with them.

Resources:

Adventures in Open Pedagogy Here is a longer write-up about the process on my teaching portfolio.

For Your Listening Pleasure:

Human by Human League