Open Pedagogy Assignments are assignments in which students use their agency and creativity to create knowledge artifacts that can support their own learning, their classmates’ learning, and the learning of students around the world. (See this peer-reviewed article for more details.) The assignment on this page is aligned to the learning outcomes of Principles of Management and we’ve identified the module where the reading appears. All of the assignments can be created with a cell phone camera or any video recording device, Google or Word documents, and your learning management system. 

Assignment: Midterm and/or End of Term Reflection

Each module started off with a summary of Why It Matters, and now it’s your turn to tell a brief story how you are summarizing what you have learned.

Now that you have completed the course, let’s take a moment to reflect on your learning. This assignment has two parts. First, return to the video that you created at the start of the term. Listen to how you defined the term “management.”

Next, write a letter that is informal and conversational in tone. Imagine that you are talking to a future student who is just about to begin this course. You’ll want to keep in mind that this imaginary audience hasn’t learned all of the concepts you now know, so keep this reflection very simple. Now that you’ve listened to your video, have you changed your mind? Would you change your definition today? If so, add your change in perspective to your letter.

In your letter, give one example of what you have learned in this course and how it connects to your professional or personal goals. Is there a concept that resonated with you that made you think? What was the most interesting thing you learned? Discuss why it was interesting and how you think another person might be engaged with these topics. Keep your letter informational and conversational.

A Note To Teachers: For this assignment, encourage students to write less than 500 words, and let them know they are sharing their learning as a reflection. We’ve given some general questions above as a starting point, and you may consider adding your own specific questions as part of this assignment.

Sometimes students will share innovative ideas about the course materials, so consider reusing them to teach future students. For example, your first term students will create the first batch of letters, and then you may consider reusing these letters for your second term students who may be assigned to respond in penpal fashion. After you have two terms of examples, use the best three from the batch as examples and start the process over again. If it’s possible, keep all of the letters in a repository where interested students can read them if they wish.