Assignments are critical to learning but time-consuming for students and instructors. At its best, an assignment helps students achieve learning goals and engages them with authentic problem-solving and with the course, yet remains manageable in terms of student and course staff workload. Unfortunately, these goals may conflict. Authentic and engaging assignments may impose significant cognitive load on students. For course staff, these assessments can be difficult to conceive, develop, and maintain. In this panel, assignment design experts reflect on how to craft assignments that are authentic and engaging, yet balance these with consideration for student learning and course staff workload. We illustrate with examples of authentic and engaging assignments, focusing on promoting discussion of designing new assignments.
