A collaborative piece by staff from the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support
The Transparency in Learning and Teaching framework, commonly known as TILT, is an award-winning framework developed by Dr. Mary-Ann Winkelmes and colleagues. It is recognized as an effective means for supporting student success and fostering equitable educational experiences. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2025) recently stated “intentionality and transparency create more equitable opportunities” (p. 90) as one of the principles for transforming STEM education, citing TILT as an effective mechanism for doing so. Due to the emphasis on making the learning process explicit and accessible, it is easy to see why TILT has a positive impact on student success.
TILT is a relatively simple approach to supporting student success and fostering equitable learning opportunities. It does so by making the invisible visible. What do we mean by invisible when we speak of student success and higher education? The invisible are things we might assume students already know or take for granted that they will be able to figure out. While such assumptions and expectations might hold true for some students, it is important to consider that, as Jankowski and Marshall (2017) remind us, “Not all learners are equally equipped to navigate various learning experiences, thus clear communication on the purpose, role, and end result of the assignment help to not advantage certain learners over others” (p. 122).
Another important consideration is that faculty are far removed from being novices in their respective fields. This can pose a challenge pertaining to teaching and learning. For example, Pedzinski (2023) contends that “While being an expert in our subject matter helps us retain and explain specific topics, it can also distance us from our students who are often experiencing our content for the first time with diverse experiences and judgements” (Identifying expert blind spots, para. 1). Orlando (2025) expands upon this challenge by pointing out that faculty often assume students have a more advanced knowledge than they really do.
In our rapidly evolving AI world, the importance of uncovering our assumptions and making the invisible visible is becoming even more critical (Bowen & Watson, 2024). TILT offers an evidence-based approach to making the invisible visible to support student success. In this blog, we will cover the components of TILT as they apply to class assignments, the intersection of TILT and AI, and briefly discuss applications of the framework beyond assignments.
Components of TILT
The beauty of TILT lies in its simplicity. In a nutshell, it consists of making the purpose, the tasks, and the criteria of an assignment more transparent to students. Utilizing TILT does not require you to overhaul your course. You can begin applying the framework to one or two assignments. The small and relatively quick changes you make can have a large impact on student learning and success. In the following sections, we briefly discuss the components of the framework within the context of a class assignment, starting with purpose.
Purpose
A transparent purpose can help shift students’ mindsets from merely viewing assignments as something they have to do, to recognizing them as essential building blocks in their learning and development, as well as in their preparation for life beyond college. The following are just some of the questions Winkelmes (2019a) encourages faculty to consider when articulating the purpose of their assignments:
- Does your purpose statement specify content knowledge or skills that students will gain from doing this assignment?
- Does your purpose statement link those skills and knowledge to the larger context of
- recent topics of class sessions?
- this part of the course?
- the whole course?
- the major?
- the discipline?
- your institution’s main learning outcomes?
- Does your purpose statement indicate the relevance and/or usefulness of this knowledge to the students’ lives beyond the course, beyond the major, or beyond college? (Winkelmes, 2019a, p. 37-38)
As you articulate the purpose, you may realize you are asking too much from students and that a more effective approach might be a series of smaller assignments that build upon each other (Winkelmes, 2019a). A well-defined purpose can assist students in making connections in their learning within and outside of class.
Task
As you articulate the tasks, consider what steps you might be glossing over. Given the diverse experiences and levels of preparation students bring to the classroom, take time to discover and reflect on any assumptions you might be making about your learners that could function as barriers to their learning. Having someone outside your discipline review your assignment and offer feedback can be an effective means to clarify the tasks, as well as making the other components (e.g., purpose and criteria) more transparent (Winkelmes, 2019a).
As you clarify the tasks, you may realize you have valid reasons not to provide every single step to students. Even under such circumstances, there are still opportunities to enhance the transparency of the assignment. Winkelmes (2019a) suggests explicitly conveying to students when the purpose of an assignment is for them to experience struggle and confusion. Being transparent about struggle and confusion as key parts of the learning process can help students maintain their confidence and encourage perseverance. Her suggestion allows faculty to adjust the level of academic scaffolding they provide students while being transparent about the rationale for doing so.
Criteria
When making the criteria for success on an assignment transparent, ask yourself whether students have enough information to produce excellent work (Winkelmes, 2019a). You can enhance the transparency of the criteria by providing multiple examples that illustrate what you are looking for in students’ work. These examples can help students understand and differentiate high-quality results versus average ones. Additionally, when focusing on transparency with your criteria, purpose, and tasks, your students may yield valuable insights regarding areas for improvement (Winkelmes, 2019a).
As one way of gathering student feedback, Stoeckle (2022) created a TILT 2.0 class activity for students to complete. It begins with an introduction to the activity, followed by students reading the assignment instructions. Then students work in small groups and complete the TILT 2.0 worksheet. The activity concludes with a whole class debrief. Such input from students, whether elicited informally or via a structured activity, can help you make real-time improvements or assist you in enhancing subsequent iterations of your assignments. These are just a few strategies to improve the transparency of the criteria for your assignment. Remember, small changes can make a big difference, and TILT is an iterative process.
TILT and AI
The TILT framework is even more important in today’s generative AI world. Transparency in how, when, and if AI should be used and the reasoning behind it lays a foundation for student engagement and academic responsibility. For the tasks educators assign to students, Bowen and Watson (2024), in their book Teaching with AI, argue that “AI will magnify the need to explain and make benefits visible” (p. 190).
Their assertion points to the importance of making the invisible visible. TILT can help you do just that. The following is an example from Illinois State University of a TILT informed statement about AI use for a writing course assignment about communication disorders:
GenAI Use: The use of generative AI is acceptable for completion of this assignment, so long as YOU do the actual writing about the disorder. You can use AI to brainstorm and ask questions about your disorder, but since AI can get things wrong, make sure that you check facts and correct any inconsistencies between disciplinary sources and generative AI. (Center for Integrated Professional Development, Illinois State, 2025)
In this example, the GenAI Use explanation comes immediately after the articulated assignment purpose. Rather than assuming students will check facts and correct inconsistencies AI produces, the statement makes this critical step visible to them.
TILT beyond assignments
While assignments are an excellent place to begin applying the framework, and while small changes can have a big impact, TILT can be used for so much more. It can be utilized to foster deeper conversations about equitable teaching and learning; it can also guide systematic changes on a much larger scale. For example, Georgia Southwestern State University is utilizing the framework to infuse transparency throughout the campus, not only in classrooms but also in non-academic units (Grissett, 2023). On an even larger scale, the California State University system piloted TILT as a scalable teaching and learning intervention to improve student outcomes (Magruder, Scott, Willard, Ruiz-Mesa, & Drew, 2019). The work resulted in faculty reconsidering pedagogical decisions and integrating student-focused teaching at a deeper level (Magruder, Scott, Willard, Ruiz-Mesa, & Drew, 2019).
Regardless of scale, making the invisible visible can effectively support student success and equitable learning opportunities. Whether your efforts to make learning and teaching transparent are small or large, remember that the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support is here to help! You can always schedule an appointment with one of our staff or stop by. Be sure to join us at our upcoming sessions on TILT (Register via CIS Events) :
- Impacting Student Success: Creating Transparent Assignments Using TILT
- Thursday, April 3rd 12:00 – 1:00pm – Online
- TILT Workshop: Assignment Transformation
- Thursday, April 10th 12:00 – 1:00 pm (Online) or
- Thursday, April 10th, 3:00 – 4:00pm (In person: Park 413).
In addition to the support provided by CIS, the TILT Higher Ed project website offers various resources for faculty, such as an assignment template and examples of before-and-after assignments from multiple disciplines.
References
Bowen, J. A., & Watson, C. E. (2024). Teaching with AI: A practical guide to a new era of human learning. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Center for Integrated Professional Development, Illinois State. (2025). Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) in the Age of GenAI. Retrieved February 11, 2025, from https://prodev.illinoisstate.edu/ai/tilt/
Grissett, J. O. (2023). Institutionalizing TILT Across a University. Perspectives In Learning, 20 (1).
Jankowski, N. A., & Marshall, D. W. (2017). Degrees that matter: Moving higher education to a learning systems paradigm. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Magruder, E. D., Scott, W., Willard, M., Ruiz-Mesa, K., & Drew, S. (2019). Transparency to close opportunity gaps in the largest state system. In M.-A. Winkelmes, A. Boye, & S. Tapp (Eds.), Transparent design in higher education teaching and leadership: A guide to implementing the transparency framework institution-wide to improve learning and retention (pp. 166-184). Stylus Publishing, LLC.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2025). Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education: Supporting Equitable and Effective Teaching.
Orlando, J. (2025, February 10). Combating the Expert Blind Spot. The Teaching Professor.
Pedzinski, S. (2023, April 10). Reflecting on Expert Blind Spots to Improve Skills-Based Teaching – Center for Innovative Teaching & Learning. Retrieved from https://blogs.iu.edu/citl/2023/04/10/reflecting-on-expert-blind-spots-to-improve-skills-based-teaching/
Stoeckle, A. (2022, April 27). TILT 2.0: How to convey your expectations of a class assignment effectively. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/tilt-2-0-how-to-convey-your-expectations-of-a-class-assignment-effectively/
Winkelmes, M.-A. (2019a). How to use the transparency framework. In M.-A. Winkelmes, A. Boye, & S. Tapp (Eds.), Transparent design in higher education teaching and leadership: A guide to implementing the transparency framework institution-wide to improve learning and retention (pp. 36-54). Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Winkelmes, M.-A. (2019b). Introduction: The story of TILT and its emerging uses in higher education. In M.-A. Winkelmes, A. Boye, & S. Tapp (Eds.), Transparent design in higher education teaching and leadership: A guide to implementing the transparency framework institution-wide to improve learning and retention (pp. 1-14). Stylus Publishing, LLC.