Instructor Toolkit: Create a Digital Assignment

Digital assignments provide students an opportunity to engage with technology and create media in their coursework. These types of assignments are great at developing skills in communication, critical thinking, technology, visual literacy, group work and more. Some examples of digital assignments include:

• Animated videos
• Blogs
• Digital Stories
• Infographics or posters
• Pitch Videos
• Podcast/Audio walk

Digital assignments can help students develop technological and digital literacy skills.

While technological literacy is about the ability to learn and use different technologies in different environments and circumstances, digital literacy moves beyond learning specific tools and is about gaining the ability to think critically about technology, create meaningful digital objects, and communicate to a larger community.

Integrating technological and digital literacy development into courses and the curriculum is important because:

• Technological literacy is identified as an undergraduate and graduate degree level learning outcome.  
• Their inclusion ensures that students at the University of Guelph learn how to use technology to create digital content in a knowledgeable and ethical way in order to contribute to an ever growing digital society.
• Students gain opportunities for experiential learning, reflection, and developing employability skills.

If you are thinking of adding a digital assignment to your course, it is important to make sure that the effort and weighting are aligned.  

Digital assignments often replace a more traditional, written assignment. Many of the components are similar: 

• Planning and outlining  
• Research 
• Writing  
• Revising 

However, there are additional components that need to be considered when determining the length and weighting of an assignment: 

• Selecting and learning a new tool  
• Visual design  
• Finding media 
• Creating and editing media  

For each of the assignment types, recommendations are provided around length and weighting that you can review as you design your assignment.  

It is also important to plan for students with disabilities or others who may not have access to the technology required to complete the assignment. Some options include: 

• Accessible tools: Depending on the type of project, there may be some accessible tool options available to create digital media. To learn more, please contact the library.  
• Group work: there are many components to digital assignments that do not require access to specialized or accessible technology. Sudents can still actively participate in choosing the topic, outlining an argument or perspective, doing research, writing and elements of design.  
• Alternative assignment: consider providing an alternative and equivalent assignment for students who are unable to complete the digital assignment for any reason. It could be replaced by a written assignment, unedited audio recording, or a silent video.