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By Annette Finley-Croswhite

TILT, or Transparency in Learning and Teaching, is a strategy for enhancing student success as developed by Dr. Mary-Ann Winkelmes, a significant scholar of pedagogical innovation. TILT is a tool for promoting equitable teaching practices and is a part of social justice education. Promoting TILT underscores Center for Faculty Development (CFD) commitment to helping faculty design culturally competent curricular offerings. 

91����Ƶ over the 2022-2023 academic year, several instructors employed the TILT method to better explore how students learn. 

TILT is intended to help students succeed by encouraging instructors to think about the purpose, task, and criteria of the work they expect from students.  When the TILT method is employed it:

• Aids students in understanding the how and why of course content;  
• Explains the purposes behind assignments;  
• Promotes equitable teaching practices that have proven to improve learning outcomes for all students especially first generation and marginalized student populations;    
• Creates a more level playing field for all learners because less is assumed about what they already know and all is designed to be as transparent as possible.

In May and August of 2022 the ODU General Education Assessment Committee, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment (OIEA), and the Center for Faculty Development held two workshops introducing TILT and offering strategies for “tilting” assignments in classes. Our guest hosts were Dr. Heather Keith from Radford 91����Ƶ and Dr. Breana Bayraktar from George Mason 91����Ƶ.  

As director of the CFD I worked with Kelsey Kirland in the OIEA to organize the second workshop as a “charette” in which all participants worked together to give each other feedback.  During the 2022-2023 academic year, faculty were encouraged to TILT one or two assignments in their general education classes. A final TILT showcase was held in May 2023 in which faculty shared their experiences using the TILT method. All of the TILT workshops were held via ZOOM.

Ten faculty finished the TILT program and received $250 stipends. They include: Rebekah Coxwell, Adjunct Instructional Faculty (English), Lauren Eichler, Instructor (Philosophy & Religious Studies), Suzanne Morrow, Master Lecturer (Psychology), Antonella O’Neal, Adjunct Instructional Faculty (World Languages and Cultures), Allison Page, (Assistant Professor (Communication & Theatre Arts), Kristian Peterson, Associate Professor (Philosophy & Religious Studies),  Heather Weddington, Lecturer (English), Leanne White, Adjunct Instructional Faculty (History), Dylan Wittkower, Professor and Chair (Philosophy & Religious Studies), and Harris Wu, Professor (Information Technology & Decision Sciences).

All faculty saw improvement in student learning outcomes using TILT.  Suzanne Morrow from psychology states, “I believe more students received points for the TILTED assignments, the assignments were better written, and I had fewer frustrations in grading. I think the best explanation for this was because the grading criteria was more clearly defined and transparent.”

Winkelmes underscores that TILT can be used to close the opportunity gap by doing more to create more equitable learning. She recognizes that assignments “are powerful pedagogical engines, sending signals to students about what faculty value and expect,” (Winkelmes, et. al., p. 209). Put simply, the well-designed and well-explained assignment will improve the work for all students in a classroom.  The ODU faculty who worked with the TILT experiment this past year reported valuing the process and enjoying the redesign of assignments and the student responses.

_{Reference: Mary-Ann Winkelmes, Allison Boye, and Suzanne Tapp, ed. Transparent Design in Higher Education and Leadership: A Guide to Implementing the transparency Framework Institution-Wide to Improve Learning and Retention. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus, 2019.}