One Example
Lifespan helps students learn from the right source.
A student can give an answer that sounds correct but comes from the wrong place. Lifespan keeps the answer and the source together, so instructors can see what the student is actually learning from.
Example Course Source
Human Biology
Assigned source: Chapter 4, Cell Energy
Students should answer photosynthesis questions from this chapter, not from random memory or outside material.
Course
Human Biology
The principal sets the source students should learn from.
Source: Chapter 4, Cell Energy
Quest
Understand Photosynthesis
The administrator turns the source into a learning goal.
Goal: Explain how plants make glucose
Task
Answer From The Source
The instructor asks a question that must be answered from the assigned source.
Question: What do plants use sunlight for?
Choice
Student Submission
The student submits an answer and the source they used.
Answer + source are reviewed together
Student Task
What do plants use sunlight for?
The task is not only asking for a correct sentence. It is asking the student to answer from the course source.
Instructor Review
Answer and source alignStudent Answer
Plants use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose.
Submitted Source
Chapter 4, Cell Energy, section: Photosynthesis
What Lifespan Makes Clear
The student understood the assigned source and used it to support the answer.