How Do I Design Assessments to Support Student Choice?

“Student choice” refers to designing assignments that make space for student autonomy in topic, format, grading weight, or other details of the assignment structure. Focusing on student autonomy has important benefits including supporting motivation through empowering students to follow their interests, bring their lives and full selves into the classroom, draw on their own strengths, and take responsibility for their learning (see more in Ryan & Deci, 2020).  Supporting student intrinsic motivation in these ways has been shown to have positive outcomes on student academic performance and persistence (Skinner et al., 2017). Designing assignments with autonomy-supporting activities also supports accessibility and equity for all students through building on Universal Design for Learning principles (CAST, 2024). As you review these guidelines, consider the balance between offering flexibility and your teaching context, capacity, and needs as an instructor. 

Strategies and Examples

Start with your learning objectives – When designing an assignment with student autonomy in mind, it can be helpful to reflect on your learning objectives for that portion of the course and identify the key component that you wish to evaluate in a particular assignment. From there, you can begin to explore some different ways of building in autonomy.

Example

You are revising a previous assignment where students are asked to give a 10-minute presentation on the carbon footprint of global corn production.

Are your primary learning objectives about:

• Oral presentation skills? Can students choose the topic and style of the presentation?
• Evaluating the environmental impacts of commercial agriculture? Can the student choose the format of the assignment (e.g essay, video presentation, creative work)?
• A mix of both objectives? Can students choose the weight of this assignment towards the final grade or drop an attempt?

Below are some additional options for providing autonomy in your assignment design:

• Topic – Allow students to choose a particular topic for their assignment. Consider asking students to provide a rationale for the chosen topic to practice applying the course content to their interests (Univ. of Melbourne, 2023).
• Format – Offer multiple choices for format of the final assignment, from poster to creative work to traditional essay. Check out our UDL Deeper Dive to explore how to encourage multiple modes of expression.
• Evaluation Criteria – Another way to offer flexibility is in co-creating assignment guidelines and rubrics with student input. See our page on designing community agreements as a way that student autonomy is incorporated into assessment guidelines for class participation.
• Grading Weight – You may offer students a choice to drop a particular assignment from their overall grade. Or, you may have students choose pathways towards completing course requirements. For example, a recent paper in Science Advances by Cullen and Oppenheimer (2024) reports on an experiment where students were given the option of whether attendance counted towards their final grade. They found offering the choice increased attendance because students chose to make it count.

Plan for autonomy in assessment design – Once you have decided on the specific learning outcomes your assignment will evaluate, the next challenge is designing an assessment framework that allows for possibilities and choice. Providing clear assignment guidelines to students can help students evaluate their options and consider how they will be assessed.  For example, consider including some of the following information in your assignment guidelines:

• The purpose of the assignment and of the choices offered – How does this assignment relate to their learning goals? And why are the choices offered? What considerations should students have when deciding, such as their personal interest in topic or format. For example, in an assignment where students may choose to create a poster or a video to communicate a public health message, you might encourage students to reflect on the audience for their public health message when making a decision.
• Content and workload expectations for each option – To ensure that student effort is equitable across different formats, use something like the Wake Forest Workload Estimator to investigate comparable activities like creating a video or writing an essay.
• Criteria for evaluating each option (e.g. a rubric) – Gehrke (2024) provides a clear example of designing more equitable rubrics that allow student autonomy. Taking a look at public speaking criteria in communications courses, Gehrke encourages rubrics which allow for students to choose how they might meet a standard like “draws and holds audience attention” in a variety of ways rather than measure only behaviors such as “eye contact” or a particular manner of speaking (Gehrke, 2024).
• Provide examples and resources – In addition to providing some general guidelines, consider offering multiple examples of what you are looking for in terms of a final assignment. If you are encouraging creative approaches, consider making students aware of the resources on campus for supporting that type of work including the UMass Amherst Makerspace and the Digital Media Lab.
• Scaffolded choices and check points – Depending on the level of your course, students may need additional guidance and support in making decisions about the best way to approach assignments. Offering opportunities to scaffold elements of larger projects, such as submitting a topic proposal or meeting with students to discuss a final project can provide an opportunity for you to monitor student progress, provide feedback on ideas in development, and provide some structure for students who are learning self-efficacy skills along with course content.

See the Student Information and Equity Template O’Neill (2011, pp. 73) for a helpful framework for designing assignments with choice built in.

Be careful not to offer too much flexibility! Too many choices can give way to decision fatigue for your students and equitable assessment challenges for you as the instructor.

Focus on growth – Your course design beyond assessment and the learning outcomes influences how student autonomy can take shape.

•  Pair with other autonomy-supportive practices. Use supportive language such as “I encourage you to….” Vs “Students must” in assignment guidelines and building inclusive classroom environment where students feel heard. Our resources on building classroom climate offers additional suggestions for setting a positive tone in your course.
• Encourage experimentation and normalize failure to motivate students to explore beyond their comfort zone. Scaffolding and check points offer some low-stakes opportunities for students to get formative feedback.
• Be open to surprise. Supporting student autonomy can introduce you to new and creative ways of engaging with the course concepts! Check out Beth Jakob’s Faculty Success on her multimedia project in her biology courses to see some examples.

• CAST (2024). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 3.0. Retrieved from https://udlguidelines.cast.org
• Cullen, S. and Oppenheimer, D. (2024). Choosing to learn: The importance of student autonomy in higher education. Sci. Adv.10 DOI:10.1126/sciadv.ado6759
• Gehrke, P. (2024). Creating more equitable rubrics to reduce discrimination and inequities in public-speaking courses. Communication Teacher, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17404622.2024.2372345
• O’Neill, G. (2011). A Practitioner’s Guide to Choice of Assessment Methods within a Module: Case Studies from University College Dublin. Dublin: UCD Teaching and Learning https://www.ucd.ie/teaching/t4media/choice_of_assessment.pdf
• Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 61, 101860.
• Skinner, E., Saxton, E., Currie, C., & Shusterman, G. (2017). A motivational account of the undergraduate experience in science: brief measures of students’ self-system appraisals, engagement in coursework, and identity as a scientist. International Journal of Science Education, 39(17), 2433-2459.
• University of Melbourne Learning Environments (2023). Providing choice for students in assessment. Accessed from https://le.unimelb.edu.au/news/articles/providing-choice-for-students-in-assessment