Assignment Spotlight: Contemporary Issues Journal

In this month's Assignment Spotlight, I'm highlighting an interesting assignment I saw on the K. Patricia Cross Academy site called Contemporary Issues Journal. This assignment caught my eye because it seems to employ aspects of the PEAR approach (which you already know I LOVE!). Learn more about this assignment into today's blog post.

The Contemporary Issues Journal assignment asks students to look for recent events or developments in the real world that are related to their coursework, then analyze these current affairs to identify the connections to course material in entries that they write in a journal. I love this type of assignment because it asks students to connect course material to real-life events, making them more real for students. In this way, students can see the relevance of what they're learning, which is an important part of adult learning theory.

One of the things I really like about this assignment is the versatility of it. You can use this assignment with current news events for a policy course, you can have students select any kind of research journal to select articles from. This can be adapted to any type of course content.

I'd love to hear your ideas on this assignment. Share them in The Online Educator Facebook Group! 

Would you like me to spotlight one of your assignments? Share your assignment HERE for an opportunity to be spotlighted in The Online Educator Blog.