Overview:
Tool: TerpAI or NotebookLM*
Time: 20–30 min
What you need: an assignment description and student questions about the assignment
How to do it:
- Pull up the emails, Canvas messages, or discussion board questions students have sent you about a specific assignment. If you don't have many, that is useful information too — check Canvas data (under Course Analytics --> Weekly Online Activity --> Resources) on how many times the assignment page was visited, which may suggest confusion even when students don't ask.
- Copy the student questions and your assignment description into a single document.
- Paste this document into TerpAI or upload to NotebookLM.
Paste the prompt below.
"Here is my assignment description and here are questions students have asked me about it. What aspects of the prompt are generating the most confusion? What is ambiguous, under-specified, or contradictory in the language? Suggest three specific revisions to the prompt that would reduce the need for clarifying questions."
- After reviewing the suggested revisions, ask: "Rewrite just the first paragraph of the assignment prompt to address the most common confusion." Use that draft as a starting point for your revision.
Notes:
Questions students ask are a biased sample — many confused students never reach out. High page-view counts on the assignment page in ELMS-Canvas may indicate broader confusion not captured in direct questions.
Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) can offer guidance for assignment redesign. To learn more, connect with a member of the TLTC's Academic Innovation team.
*We encourage you to exclusively use UMD-approved GenAI tools, which are deployed in alignment with institutional security and compliance requirements.