Twelve tips for designing assignments that foster independence in learning

Independent learning refers to opportunities in which responsibility for learning shifts to learners. Providing health professions learners with independent learning opportunities can be challenging because of the often highly structured curricula of health professions education. Structured independent learning assignments that give learners the opportunity to begin developing the skills and strategies to take on self-directed opportunities in the future may lend themselves to these contexts. However, in health professions education contexts, few guidelines exist for designing effective assignments that foster independence in learning. These twelve tips provide recommendations for how to improve structured independent learning assignments for health professions learners and help them develop the skills and experience required for more self-directed opportunities and for lifelong learning.