








































Article 
 

Dr. Rong Liu, Associate Professor, Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA; email 
rliu@ggc.edu. 
 

Have you TILTed? Promote 
Student Success by TILTed 
Assignments 

GATESOL Journal 
2022, Vol. 32(2), pp. 43–50 

doi:10.52242/gatesol.149 
ISSN: 2331-6845 

 

 
Rong Liu 
Georgia Gwinnett College 
 

Abstract 
Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) has been found to result in student success 
through avenues such as academic confidence, sense of belonging, and motivation. This article 
discusses the application of TILTed writing assignments in a multilingual, college English 
composition course designated for English for Academic Purposes (EAP). The author shares 
the steps involved in transforming existing assignments into transparent TILTed assignments 
and discusses how TILTed assignments in the classrooms have the potential to promote 
student engagement and help EAP students succeed in college classrooms. 
 
Keywords 
TILT, transparency in learning and teaching, student success, English for Academic Purposes 
(EAP), writing assignments 

 
Introduction 
The deficit in literacy in the United States is dire; according to the National Center for Education 
Statistics (NCES, 2019), 20% of adults are having problems in English reading comprehension 
and writing. Multilingual students face even greater literacy challenges because of restricted 
linguistic input and cultural knowledge. I am fortunate to teach at one of the most diverse colleges 
in the Southern United States. Many of my students were not born in the U.S., and English is their 
second or additional language. As a result, many students face many reading and writing 
challenges. The problem is further exacerbated by the limitations on the number of learning 
support courses available for students. Currently, the college has merely a single learning support 
course. Thus, it is very challenging to close the gap in English within the span of just one semester 
with only one learning support course. To find new ways to improve student success in freshman 
courses, the composition committee searched for high impact teaching practices (Finley & 
McNair, 2013) and decided to adopt TILT, which stands for Transparency in Learning and 
Teaching (TILT) to promote student success (Winkelmes et al., 2016; also see below for details). 

TILT emphasizes teachers making conscious efforts to ensure learners understand how and 
why they are completing the target assignment. The initiative for this model was started by the 
Association of American Colleges & Universities in 2014 and has since gained popularity in 
various institutions (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2011; Gianoutsos & 
Winkelmes, 2016). The TILT framework has gained traction due to books including Small 
Teaching (Lang, 2016), How College Works (Chambliss & Takacs, 2014), and Transparent design 
in higher education teaching and leadership (Felten & Finley, 2019). As a member on the 
composition committee and a participant of the TILT practice, the author shares the steps and 
discusses potential benefits of the TILTing teaching technique in an English for Academic 
Purposes (EAP) course, a learning support course for first-year composition. 
 

mailto:rliu@ggc.edu


44 GATESOL Journal 32(2)  
 

Purpose of this Study 
This paper aims to introduce TILTing, a teaching technique to promote student success, to 
interested teachers. The paper intends to provide guidance to create TILTed assignments by 
discussing one exemplar writing assignment in an EAP writing course in higher education. After 
providing a brief explanation of the framework, the paper offers a short review of the research 
showing the positive benefits of the technique. The paper then describes the teaching context, and 
illustrates the three steps, i.e., purpose, task and criteria, for implementing a TILTed assignment 
by comparing a non-TILTed assignment and a revised TILTed assignment. Finally, the paper 
offers the observed benefits of TILTing for student success and discusses its possible impact for 
classroom teachers. 
 
The TILT Framework 
The TILT framework is the result of the Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher 
Education project, which started in 2009 and led by Mary-Ann Winkelmes. The framework 
stresses the importance of making teaching and learning transparent, i.e., making learning 
processes explicit and accessible (Winkelmes et al., 2016). Communicating how and why 
students learn course content leads to transparency in teaching and learning. To design 
TILTed assignments, teachers need to include three key elements: purpose, task, criteria for 
success. Purpose includes information why students are completing the assignments and 
what knowledge or skills they will gain and how they will apply the knowledge or skills in 
real life. Task informs students the specific steps needed to complete the assignment and 
pitfalls to avoid. Criteria tells students what successful assignments may look like and how 
their work will be evaluated. Criteria could include checklists, rubrics and samples with 
comments. 
 
Impact of TILTed Assignments in the Classroom 
The teaching method has been found to enhance students’ academic confidence, sense of 
belonging, and awareness of skills valued by future employers (Hart Research Associates, 2015; 
Winkelmes et al., 2016). About 1800 students and 35 faculty participated in the Winkelmes et al.’s 
study, and 89% of the student participants were students from non-white backgrounds. Faculty 
only made two assignments transparent and students became more confident academically, felt 
more affiliated with the school, and learned more job skills.  
 Gianoutsos and Winkelmes (2016) found that TILTing increased students’ retention rates, 
especially those of underserved students. Their study showed that one year later, students who 
were in primarily transparent courses continued as registered students at a rate of 15.5% higher 
than the rest of their counterparts. In addition, studies found that the sense of belonging and 
confidence that students gained from transparent classes positively correlated with greater 
persistence and better academic performance (Aronson et al., 2002; Walton & Cohen, 2011). 
Moreover, a recent study by Howard et al. (2020) showed that transparent assignments reduced 
the negative impact of online learning for non-white students. 

Creating TILTed assignments may also promote student engagement and success in a 
COVID-19 environment where many students struggle to focus in a hybrid or online teaching 
mode. During remote teaching, many students may have difficulties communicating frequently 
with the instructor due to barriers such as internet connectivity, sickness, and lack of access to 
childcare. Fortunately, creating TILTed assignments does not interrupt normal teaching and does 
not require extra resources as demonstrated by the following exemplar application. 



Liu 45 
 

 
Description of the Teaching Context 
The author went through a TILT training workshop and successfully integrated TILTed 
assignments into his English for Academic Purposes (EAP) section of a collegiate freshmen 
composition course. Students in the course were English language learners who were taking 
developmental writing concurrently with freshman composition. This EAP course aims to provide 
just-in-time support for students’ writing. 

TILTed assignments are an ideal, high impact teaching practice which promotes student 
success and can be applied across curriculums with little interruption of the current classroom 
teaching; For English language learners, this is especially beneficial because they need more 
scaffolding than their native English-speaking counterparts (NCES, 2019). When teachers design 
a task, the level of detail provided in instructions must parallel the degree of language proficiency 
and more importantly, provide a roadmap to success. Otherwise, the instructions are not 
appropriate (or even accessible) for the multilingual students.  
 
Steps for Implementing TILTed Writing Assignments 
Three key elements including purpose, task, and criteria must be incorporated into any successful 
TILTed assignment (Winkelmes et al., 2016). According to Winkelmes et al., these three elements 
are essential to transparency, as well as student understanding, learning, and success. Purpose 
answers the question why students should do the task and motivates students; task answers the 
question what exact the assignment is and helps eliminate any misunderstanding; criteria address 
the question how the assignment is going to be evaluated and provide clear expectations of the 
product. These elements are incorporated into TILTed lessons as three steps, all of which make 
the writing assignments transparent to promote student success.  
 
Step One: Articulate the Purpose of the Assignment 
During the purpose step, the instructor clearly articulates to students the critical writing and 
reading skills they should learn or practice while completing the assignment, the content 
knowledge students should gain from assignment completion, and how students might use the 
skills they have gained later, both inside and outside of the classroom. The instructor may use 
terms such as understanding, analyzing, evaluating, and others from Bloom’s Taxonomy of 
Educational Objectives to communicate the purpose of the assignment to students. Thus, after 
TILTing, the assignment now should have four layers of purpose: real world connections, career 
connections, college performance, and course outcomes. Providing these four layers of purpose 
may engender students to view TILTed assignments more favorably, since the assignments and 
their associated skills are relevant to their lives (Winkelmes et al., 2016). The students in this 
course are advanced English learners who are college students; thus the author chose the Bloom’s 
Taxonomy as the objectives as suggested by Winkelmes et al. (2016). However, depending on the 
proficiency level of students, teachers can adjust the purpose of the TILT model. For example, 
instructors may choose objectives based on the WIDA levels for K–12 English learners (WIDA, 
2020). For advanced multilingual college students, instructors may design objectives based on 
Level 6 of the WIDA scale. 

As seen in Table 1 below, my initial non-TILTed writing assignment lacks transparency 
as to the purpose of the assignment. The TILTed assignment is transparent with four lays of the 
above-mentioned purpose. 
 



46 GATESOL Journal 32(2)  
 

Table 1 
Articulation of Purpose Before and After the Application of the TILT Framework in an 
Assignment 
 

Assignment Before TILT 
Purpose Not Transparent 

Assignment After TILT 
Purpose Transparent 

Purpose: Not Articulated Purpose: Real World Connections: We make 
evaluations for various purposes and audiences, 
sometimes without realizing that we are making 
judgments. When you make a decision about 
going to a particular college, choosing a career, or 
even dating someone, you have evaluated the 
subjects. The evaluation project will help you 
make quality judgments.  
Career Connections: The goal of this project is 
to evaluate a specific major or career. Using the 
widely accepted standards of judgment, you will 
determine if your chosen major or career is a good 
fit for you or not. The skills you will acquire from 
completing this assignment will help you make 
more informed decisions in your career as well. 
For example, you will learn what standards or 
criteria are appropriate for your purpose and 
audience for decision making. 
College Performance: You will practice the 
writing literacy that is essential for most of your 
college courses such as history, arts and others.  
Course Outcomes: (1) To engage individually 
and collaboratively in the writing process 
including: prewriting, writing, editing, assessing, 
and revising; and (2) To become acquainted with 
research and documentation techniques. 

 
Step Two: Define the Task 
During the task step, the instructor holds a class discussion in which he or she names, defines, and 
outlines the assignment so that students know what they are to do and how to go about 
accomplishing it (Winkelmes et al., 2019). Specifically, the instructor outlines the procedure for 
completing the assignment, provides a few recommended steps which will aid students as they 
complete the assignment, as well as offers suggestions as to how to best overcome various 
assignment challenges (Winkelmes et al., 2016).  The detailed outline of the procedure provides 
students with a blue-print or scaffold for creating their assignment, boosting students’ confidence 
in their abilities to complete the task, while reducing their anxiety (Winkelmes et al., 2019). During 
the discussion, the instructor may ask students direct, targeted questions, ones which will help 
them to make connections between the posed questions and the assignment. Targeted questions, 
and the guided discussions which follow, should be crafted to foster better understanding of the 
assignment and help students to relate to it, thus creating transparency (Winkelmes, 2013). 

As shown in Table 2, although the original assignment names the task students are to 
complete and provide them with a general procedure for completing it, the initial, non-TILTed 
writing assignment lacks the procedural details found in a TILTed assignment and does not offer 



Liu 47 
 

them any suggestions or aid as to how to best tackle assignment problems. Furthermore, although 
students are asked one question related to the assignment, the assignment does not cover the 
importance of evaluation, how to conduct a reliable evaluation (an important life skill), and how 
the assignment might be used to help them make better life choices in the future, such as choice of 
major or career. Therefore, transparency is not accomplished with the initial assignment.  
 
Table 2 
Definition of Task Before and After the Application of the TILT Framework in an Assignment 
 

Assignment Before TILT 
Task Not Transparent 

Assignment After TILT 
Task Transparent 

Task:  
 For this assignment, you will write an evaluation 

paper which will be due in the dropbox on D2L 
9:00 AM on Monday, April 30. 
 

 The task will be to assess your choice of major or 
career path.  Why is the major or career a 
particularly good one? 
 

 Once you have determined the primary audience 
on which to focus your evaluation, you will need 
to come up with different criteria for evaluating 
the major or career and then compare and contrast 
different majors or careers based on the audience 
and criteria you have chosen. 
 

 You will need to justify your evaluation by 
presenting evidence from 3 articles which will 
come from a bibliography list provided to you by 
your instructor. 

Task:  
This assignment will focus on evaluation—
assessing your choice of major or career path. 
Why is the major or career you have chosen (or 
are considering) a particularly good one? Why is 
it significantly better than other choices? You will 
continue to develop your critical thinking and 
analytical abilities as you make an evaluative 
argument about its comparative nature and 
provide evidence for how it meets (or does not 
meet) specific criteria that you determine. 
We will practice identifying appropriate criteria to 
evaluate your chosen major or career and will 
provide specific examples to support those 
criteria.  The final evaluation should be 3-4 
pages double-spaced in length excluding the 
works cited page. 
 
Steps 
First, Choose an Audience 
To whom will you be directing this evaluation?  
Your parents? A future employer? A scholarship 
committee? You need to create some reason for 
making this kind of evaluation at this particular 
time, so that you can better tailor your 
evaluation’s focus. Remember that your 
credibility is vitally important here, as it is in all 
good arguments, so take care to present yourself 
as someone who is well-informed about the issue 
you are discussing.  Your credibility will also be 
influenced by how well you present yourself as 
the kind of person your audience wants to listen 
to: a reasonable, thoughtful, and considerate 
individual.   
 
Next, Research and Develop Your Argument 
To create an evaluative argument, you will work 
through the following stages: 



48 GATESOL Journal 32(2)  
 

 Develop a thesis statement that makes a claim 
about the quality of your major or career path  

 Establish criteria for evaluating the target major/ 
career under discussion,  

 Research information about your major or 
career, and 

 Present and discuss details to demonstrate how 
your chosen major or career does or does not fit 
your criteria. 

 
Step Three: Make Criteria Clear 
During this step, the instructor details his or her expectations of the finished writing product, as 
well as the criteria used for grading. It is recommended to list information such as characteristics 
of a successful paper, providing real samples of papers of various degree of success to help students 
distinguish a successful paper from a poor paper, and including a checklist of requirements 
(formatting, thesis, citations, grammar, page length, etc.) in order to assist students in evaluating 
their work (Burton, 2006; Winkelmes et al., 2019). Providing a rubric if appropriate for the 
assignments is also recommended (Pui et al., 2020). 

As Table 3 demonstrates, the original assignment is less transparent; the revised assignment 
is more transparent with a list of expected features of the paper, and it provides a rubric and 
example papers with comments for students to examine. During the classroom teaching, the 
students use a rubric and a checklist to evaluate example papers and complete peer reviews. The 
rubric and the checklist provide students with opportunities to self-check. 
 
Table 3 
Criteria Before and After the Application of the TILT Framework in an Assignment 
 

Assignment Before TILT 
 Criteria not transparent 

Assignment After TILT 
Criteria transparent 

 Your paper should be 3-4 pages double-spaced in 
length. 
 

 You will need to justify your evaluation by 
presenting evidence from the Web sites 
themselves and evidence from 3 articles which 
will come from a bibliography list provided to 
you by your instructor. 
 

 Your project should show your proficiency with 
writing mechanics. 
 

Criteria: Your evaluation should…  
 Possess a clear, evaluative thesis statement in 

terms of the defined criteria 
 Show attention to audience values through word 

choice, selection of details, tone, and organization  
 Identify and define clearly the criteria used to 

evaluate the text in question  
 Provide specific examples to support each 

criterion 
 Incorporate at least three secondary sources 

(cited in MLA format); one of the three must be 
academic  
Your entire project should show your proficiency 
with writing mechanics. This includes the 
appropriate use of citations, sentence structure, 
word choice, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.  
Rubric and checklist: 
See d2l content week 10—Rubric; Checklist 



Liu 49 
 

See d2l content week 10 for example evaluation 
papers. 

 
Closing Thoughts  
In TILTed assignments, students are provided with a well-articulated purpose for completing 
assignments, and the task and criteria for completions are made transparent. The targeted question, 
detailed procedures, and recommendations have provided students with a roadmap to success. As 
a result of TILTed assignments, many of the students are more motivated to complete assignments 
because they have found both academic and real-world value in completing their assignments. 
Many students also had less anxiety and less confusion about the assignment. Since the research 
on TILT is quite new (Winkelmes et al., 2016; Winkelmes et al., 2019), there is no particular past 
research targeting the language acquisition in specific areas such as grammar, listening and 
speaking. However, the TILT technique has the great potential to improve students’ language 
learning based on the past research and the current informal observation. For instance, students in 
general were found more motivated and felt more confident about learning as shown by several 
studies (e.g., Winkelmes et al., 2016; Yong, 2017), which will lead to more success in language 
acquisition. Future research is necessary to confirm the observed benefits for language learners. 

For instructors, creating TILTed assignments requires time and efforts. Initially, the 
transformation may be difficult due to the explicit directions and extra time. However, once it is 
completed, teachers may find the rewarding is worthwhile since the transparency of the lessons 
enhances student engagement and success. Teachers can use their existing assignments and 
transform them into TILTed assignments following the three steps outlined above. The change 
requires little resources and does not disrupt normal teaching. Teachers can also use this 
transformation as a chance to examine their teaching objectives and criteria in order to design fully 
transparent assignments which are better aligned with their course outcomes. Although the 
population is advanced language learners in a college composition course, the TILT teaching 
technique can be adapted to other settings. For instance, for K–12 language teachers, to make their 
assignments more transparent, they could adapt the TILT method by using the WIDA levels as the 
purpose, provide recommended steps to complete a task and supply grading criteria and example 
products. 
 
References 
 
Aronson, J., Fried, C., & Good, C. (2002). Reducing the effects of stereotype threat on African 

American college students by shaping theories of intelligence. Journal of Experimental 
Social Psychology, 38, 113–125. https://doi:10.1006/jesp.2001.1491 

Association of American Colleges and Universities. (2011). The LEAP vision for learning. 
AAC&U. https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/leap_vision_summary.pdf 

Burton, K. (2006). Designing criterion-referenced assessment. Journal of Learning Design, 1(2), 
73–82. 

Chambliss, D., & Takacs, C. (2014). How college works. Harvard University Press. 
Felten, P., & Finley, A. (2019). Transparent design in higher education teaching and leadership: 

A guide to implementing the transparency framework institution-wide to improve learning 
and retention. Stylus Publishing. 

Finley, A, & McNair, T. (2013). Assessing underserved students’ engagement in high-impact 
practices. AAC&U. 

https://doi:10.1006/jesp.2001.1491
https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/leap_vision_summary.pdf


50 GATESOL Journal 32(2)  
 

Gianoutsos, D, & Winkelmes, M. (2016). Navigating with transparency. Proceedings of the 
Pennsylvania Association of Developmental Educators, 15–19. 

Hart Research Associates. (2015). Falling Short? Learning and Career Success. Washington, DC: 
AAC&U. 

Howard, T. O., Winkelmes, M. A., & Shegog, M. (2020). Transparency teaching in the virtual 
classroom: Assessing the opportunities and challenges of integrating transparency teaching 
methods with online learning. Journal of Political Science Education, 16(2), 198–211. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/15512169.2018.1550420 

Lang, J. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. Jossey-Bass. 
National Center for Educational Statistics. (NCES). (2019, July). Data Point: Adult English 

Literacy in the United States (No. 2019–179). U.S. Department of Education. 
Pui, P., Yuen, B., & Goh, H. (2020). Using a criterion-referenced rubric to enhance student 

learning: a case study in a critical thinking and writing module. Higher Education Research 
& Development, 40(5), 1056–1069. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1795811 

Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011). A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic 
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WIDA. (2020). WIDA English language development standards framework, 2020 edition: 
Kindergarten–grade 12. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. 
https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3092 

Winkelmes, M., Bernacki, M, Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., & Weavil, K. H. (2016). A 
teaching intervention that increases underserved college students’ success. Peer Review, 
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Winkelmes, M.A. (2013). Transparency in teaching: Faculty share data and improve students’ 
learning. Liberal Education, 99(2), 48–55. 

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____________________________________________________________________________ 
 

Received: November 07, 2021 | Accepted: July 26, 2022 | Published: October 26, 2022 

https://doi.org/10.1080/15512169.2018.1550420
https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1795811
https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3092

	Have you TILTed? Promote Student Success by TILTed Assignments
	GATESOL Journal2022, Vol. 32(2), pp. 43–50
	doi:10.52242/gatesol.149
	ISSN: 2331-6845
	Criteria: Your evaluation should… 

