The Open Pedagogy & Renewable Assignments online guide is by Linda Miles and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
"When applied to assignments, open pedagogy tends to display five different characteristics: incorporating feedback, providing options, encouraging ownership, having value beyond knowledge, and being shared with others. These characteristics can appear singly, be used together, or have significant overlap. Renewability is a spectrum depending on how many of the characteristics are present, which provides room to choose which ones align best with the learning objectives of a course and classroom culture."
(Building-in Student Buy-in: Disposable vs Renewable Assignments by Amanda Grey, CC BY 4.0)
(The Renewable Assignment Spectrum by Amanda Grey, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Outlines the five characteristics of renewable assignments which can be applied individually to assignment design or combined in various ways. Assignments can be considered more or less renewable depending on how many of the following characteristics are incorporated. First, Incorporate Feedback, examples would be students getting feedback from the teacher or classmates and revising the work before final submission or the teacher asking students for feedback on the assignment or on any challenges or barriers to completing the assignment. Second, Provide Options, examples would be students' opportunities to choose what kind of learning object they create, what tools they use, or how it is presented, demonstrated , or submitted, or teachers providing students with an alternative assignment option or the ability to opt out of certain components. Third, Encourage Ownership, examples would be students choosing or creating topics they feel strongly about or personalizing the topics in a meaningful way, or a teacher asking students to contribute to assignment design. Fourth, Have Value Beyond Knowledge, examples would be assignments where students not only demonstrate learning, but also gain skills in collaboration, problem solving, or use of tools and platforms. Fifth, Are Shared With Others, examples would be students contributing to development or revision of open educational resources (or OER) course materials that will be published, contributing to future knowledge and learning of upcoming students, or asking students to work in public spaces (for example Wikipedia or social media, and thereby donating their knowledge to the community.