What's in a name? Exploring the impact of naming assignments

Abstract

Past research has examined how various elements and style of a syllabus influence students' perceptions of the class. Furthermore, students' learning and grade orientations have been shown to impact academic performance and effort. We sought to add to this literature by exploring how an assignment's name might impact estimates of time to be spent on and the importance of the assignment. We also explored the separate interaction effect of the attitudes and behaviors subscales of these orientations on students' perceptions separately. In total, 159 undergraduate students completed a survey with a written assignment called "Quiz," "Exam," or "Journal." Participants answered questions from the LOGO-II scale, and regarding their anticipated effort, time to be spent on, and the importance of the assignment. We found that the quiz and exam were perceived as more important than the journal even though participants reported spending the least amount of time on the quiz. Significant interactions between name and learning/grade orientation suggest that for students with high motivation to learn (attitudes and behaviors), all assignments are perceived as an opportunity to learn. However, for students focused on grades (grade orientation behaviors), all graded assignments are opportunities for grades and hence equally important. These results support analyzing attitudes and behaviors separately. Results are discussed in light of previous research and directions for future research.