Designing User-Oriented Assignments with Jim Burke

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, does the design of an assignment impact the quality of a student’s work?

Jim Burke is the author of The Six Academic Writing Assignments: Designing the User’s Journey. In his book, Jim investigates writing assignments from hundreds of classrooms to identify what’s useful and what’s not. What he found is that the overall design of an academic assignment, from the layout to the words used, is critical to not only how well a student preforms, but how they continue to learn throughout their academic journey. By taking a user approach, Jim suggests that we can design better work for our students.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Jim to learn more about what makes a good assignment. Our conversation begins at the start of Jim’s investigative journey…