“The Professor Actually Really Cares, and They Want You to Know Why You’re Doing It”: Exploring Traditionally Underserved Students’ Experiences With Transparent Assignment Design

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Collection number: AQ-2026-028

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Glover, Azure Star. “'The Professor Actually Really Cares, and They Want You to Know Why You’re Doing It': Exploring Traditionally Underserved Students’ Experiences with Transparent Assignment Design," Ed.D. diss., Valdosta State University, 2026. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10428/7742 The purpose of this study was to explore how first-year college students from traditionally underserved populations describe their sense of belonging as a function of being in a freshman seminar course that implemented transparent assignment design (TAD). Degree attainment has been associated with many individual and societal benefits (Davis et al., 2025; Phillips et al., 2020; Wilson, 2023). However, traditionally underserved students are less likely to attain a degree (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2024a), a phenomenon that has been described as the equity gap. This gap is due in part to noncognitive factors such as sense of belonging and self-efficacy (Tinto, 2017a). To address this gap, a variety of high-impact practices have been implemented in higher education to support students at risk of attrition (Kuh, 2008). Transparent assignment design is one such practice that has been shown to improve self-reported academic success indicators such as sense of belonging and self-efficacy, especially among traditionally underserved students (Winkelmes et al., 2016, 2019). I used narrative inquiry to explore the experiences of six first-year students from traditionally underserved backgrounds in freshman seminar courses that implemented TAD at California State University, Northridge in Fall 2024. Major findings suggest that despite some negative student experiences with TAD, the framework addresses the equity gap by supporting students in overcoming the hidden curriculum. TAD clarifies assignment expectations to students from traditionally underserved communities, especially for complicated or novel tasks. Results may inform faculty and administrative decisions in higher education, with broader societal implications.