Roadmap To Success Assignment | Center for Teaching & Learning

**The Roadmap to Success should be assigned very early in the semester (first 3 weeks) and is meant to be a relatively brief, but useful tool to help students:**

chart a path to success in a given class,
identify resources to support their work across the semester,
reflect on previous academic success and translate lessons learned to the work in the current course, and
clarify academic success expectations between faculty and students.

Additionally, the Roadmap to Success encourages students to plan ahead in assignment preparation so they do not end up in a position that may tempt an academically dishonest decision. For more ideas on course design and assignment design that encourage academic integrity, click here.

Feel free to download the Roadmap to Success Assignment and use it as is, or adapt as needed for your discipline and/or course. Give it to students very early in the semester (for no credit, or as a small assignment itself) and review the roadmap they have articulated. Taking just five minutes in class to summarize and emphasize important aspects of the roadmap and student responses can be extremely helpful in promoting students’ responsibility for academic success.

My Roadmap to Success in ___________ (class title)

PART I: CONTEXT

1. What grade do you hope to earn in this course?2. What will be expected of you in order to earn your desired grade?3. What types of assignments are required in this course, and how many of each?

Paper (research, creative, essay, report, etc.)
Presentation
Project
Group Work
Exam
Miscellaneous

4. What strategies did you employ to be successful on previous, similar assignment types?5. What campus resources can you utilize to support your success on each type of assignment (provide names, web links, email addresses, and protocol for use – i.e., appointment only, drop-ins)?

PART II: ASSIGNMENT PLANNING

1. How do you plan on making best use of those campus resources?2. How many hours do you anticipate it will take you to complete each course assignment?3. Do you have assignments due in other classes on, or near, the same due dates for this class? How will you manage the conflicting deadlines?

PART III: PERFORMANCE & EXECUTION

1. How is academic integrity defined in the course syllabus? What aspects of academic integrity, as it’s defined for this course, are unique or new to you? Is it clear what counts as academic integrity versus what can get you in trouble (I.e., collaboration on homework assignments, group collaboration for projects, exam prep, paper citations and references)?
2. How, and from whom, are you going to get early feedback on your assignments to ensure you are on the right track (where appropriate, I.e., paper, project)?
3. What will you do if the grade/s you earn on your first few assignments are below what you hoped to earn for the course? What measures will you take to get back on track?