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The intention of homework is to further test students' knowledge at home. However, there is a line between productive work and busy work. Busy work has no inherent value; it just occupies time. Karin Chenoweth provides an example of a student taking Chemistry who must color a mole for homework.^[1] Chenoweth shared how busy work like this can have a negative effect on students, and explained that having this simple drawing is of no worth in terms of learning, yet it lowered the student's grade in class. However, Miriam Ferzli et al point out that just because an assignment is time consuming does not give students the right to call an assignment "busy work," which can be seen in the case of lab reports, which are indeed time consuming but which are also key to learning.^[2]

So, what transforms busy work into productive work? The creation of homework is complex due to its subjective nature, but ultimately a teacher must assign whatever work they believe will most effectively engage their students. Yet constructing assignments that promote active learning can be challenging, and students may perceive some teacher's assignments as being busy work. This thin line can be navigated by looking at what researchers and educators have discovered.

One way to promote productive learning starts in the classroom and then seeps into the homework. Brian Cook and Andrea Babon point to the difference between active and passive learning, noting that active learning promotes engagement and "a deeper approach to learning that enables students to develop meaning from knowledge." Cook and Babon discuss the use of weekly quizzes, which are based on the course readings and which test each student's understanding at the end of each week. Weekly quizzes engage not only students, but also teachers, who must look at what is commonly missed, review students' answers, and clear up any misunderstandings.^[3]

Sarah Greenwald and Judy Holdener discuss the rise of online homework and report that "online homework can increase student engagement, and students generally appreciate the immediate feedback offered by online homework systems as well as the ability to have multiple attempts after an incorrect solution."^[4] Greenwald and Holdener point out that after creating effective homework assignments, teachers must also implement the learning from that homework.^[5] Greenwald and Holdener point to a teacher who uses a two-step homework process of connecting homework to classroom learning by first assigning homework followed by in-class presentations. The teacher says using class time for following up on homework gives that connection to what is learned in the class, noting, "In the initial step students complete and submit (traditional) homework assignments electronically, and then later they revisit their work through presentations of selected problems during class.^[5]

By taking these steps to prevent busy work and engage students' active learning, students can insure they are learning and teachers can be confident in the education of their students.