Do your assessments match course outcomes? Are they clear?

Before all else, it's crucial that your assessments are aligned to course outcomes AND are easily understandable by students. Assess your own assessments with three questions:

Do your assessments match the course and unit outcomes? Look at your stated course and unit outcomes - will this assessment allow students to demonstrate learning in these areas? If not, you may want to take a second look at these aspects of your course.
Are your assessments aligned with what you've covered in your synchronous or asynchronous materials? Is there a clear relationship between the ways you've introduced and discussed course content and the assessment you're assigning?
Are your assessments clear to your students? Mary-Ann Winkelmas, of the Transparency in Learning and Teaching project (TILT Higher Ed), recommends a prompt communicate three things: purpose, task, and criteria for success. Learn more in her 4 short videos on the unwritten rules of college success and Transparency Frameworks

Next, leverage motivation to help students succeed

Intrinsic motivation is a motivation that arises from within us. In his book, Drive, author Daniel Pink explains that intrinsic motivation seems to lead to better out comes and stronger work, and describes three critical factors that help create intrinsic motivation: autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Autonomy is when people have some control over the tasks they'll do - for example, Google's 20% time or Genius Hours. Here are three ways to offer students autonomy over activities and assignments.

When - give students the autonomy to decide when they'll do an assignment, participate in a discussion, view a lecture or take a quiz. Online learning is superlative in this dimension, but there are ways to work this ethos into in-person learning as well.
How - Give students options about how they engage. Can they submit a written response OR a recorded oral one? Can they do the project in a group OR independently? Can they choose how they'll demonstrate their mastery of the material? (essay, presentation, narrated photo essay, board game?!)
What - Can students choose what they are learning? For example, can they choose from a library of weekly readings? Do their own research and contribute to a class collection of resources? Is there room for them to research and report back on a chosen topic? Pick a topic for a final project?

Mastery - Mastery is all about being able to practice and perfect a chosen task. Here are some ways to bolster mastery:

Increase opportunities for feedback and growth before a major assessment. Drafts, peer reviews, conferences and practice quizzes all help students revise and improve their work.
Create opportunities for low- or no-stakes practice. Can students quiz themselves, practice a simulation, or do another kind of dry run before having to perform for a high-stakes assessment? If a draft is like a scrimmage, are there practice drills students can do to improve?

Purpose - having purpose for doing something can make even a mundane task seem urgent, relevant and satisfying. How can we infuse purpose into our activities and assignments?

Create activities where students can connect what they're learning to their lived experiences.
Give students a chance to set their own goals, and participate in their own assessment of those goals.
Make assessments more authentic - i.e. connect them to the real world. Asking students to create a project or assignment around a real-world question, or for a specific audience can be very helpful for this, but debates, simulations, performances, models, poster projects, etc. can also make assessments more authentic.

Source/Further Reading