Beyond the Paper: Alternative Assignment Design for Interdisciplinary Majors: 2026 AAPT-APA Teaching Hub

This session is designed to explore alternative ways of constructing philosophy assignments for college classrooms. Frequently, philosophy assignments fall into one of three categories—papers, presentations, or exams. While these traditional modes of evaluation have significant pedagogical benefits, there are many other types of assignments that might be more beneficial for students who do not intend to pursue graduate careers where argumentative writing and speaking skills will be most important. Students with backgrounds in design, fine art, creative writing, music, engineering, computer science, and so on might be better served with and more excited by assignments that play to and advance their existing skillsets and interests.

Additionally, in the era of ChatGPT, it may be helpful to more heavily rely on assignments that can’t be as easily forged by AI. Creative assignments, including those with visual, video, creative writing, collaboration, or design elements, might be helpful even for students who don’t have interests in the arts. Finally, many philosophical topics tend to inspire deep personal reflection and artistic expression, and we would do well to encourage our students down these pathways.