Designing Reusable Worksheets for Students

One way I’ve been using Lucid is to create reusable worksheets that give students a structured, visual starting point for an assignment.

I’ve given talks and workshops on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and one idea I keep coming back to is the importance of providing learners with multiple pathways to success. For this assignment, I wanted students to have a choice: they could start from scratch, or they could use a visual template I created to help organize their thinking.

In the video below, I walk through how I created the worksheet, turned it into a reusable template, shared it with students as part of the assignment, and how Lucid is supporting the learning experience in the course.

In this example, I created the worksheet in Lucidchart, saved it as a template, and provided it to students as an optional resource. Students can make their own copy and use it to complete the assignment, or they can choose another approach that works better for them.

What I like about this approach is that the template:

• gives students a structured starting point without prescribing exactly how they must complete the work
• can be designed specifically around the learning objectives of the assignment
• students can modify and adjust the components and make it their own
• can be reused and adapted across courses, sections, or future assignments
• gives students another visual way to organize and communicate their thinking

If you’d like to explore or adapt the template, feel free to make it your own:

AI Tool Comparison & Risk Assessment Worksheet

This particular activity asks students to explain key concepts, compare AI tools, and assess potential value and risk. But the same template-based approach could work for case studies, comparisons, planning activities, research, reflection exercises, and many other types of assignments.

I’d be curious to hear how others are using templates to give students more structure, flexibility, or choice in their learning.

Sean Nufer
Senior Director of Teaching and Learning  |  The Community Solution Education System
Senior Adjunct Professor  |  The Chicago School of Professional Psychology