High Impact Practices and Resources

High-Impact Practices (HIPs) are research-based educational strategies that have been proven to enhance student learning experiences. This page provides an in-depth exploration of HIPs and the key elements that make these educational practices effective. Relevant tools, resources, and strategies are also provided to help instructors understand and integrate HIPs seamlessly. By incorporating these elements, educators can enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.

Benefits of HIPs in Teaching & Learning

HIPs are associated with positive learning outcomes that foster student success. These benefits are reflected in several key areas: 

  • Higher GPA

  • Growth in student engagement and stronger teacher-student interaction

  • Boost in critical thinking and communication skills

  • Application of knowledge in real-world contexts

  • Greater appreciation for diversity and reduced stereotyping

  • Deep learning and personal development

While all students benefit from the use of HIPs in their education, these practices might be particularly beneficial for underserved students (Finley & McNair, 2013; Kuh, 2008). Studies show that persistence rates increased among students from historically underrepresented backgrounds who participated in courses utilizing HIPs. It was also seen that learning outcome disparities between students from underserved backgrounds and their non-first-generation peers were minimized (Finley & McNair, 2013 as cited in High-Impact Practices: Enhancing the Student Experience, n.d.).

The Eleven High Impact Practices

The eleven HIPs listed below combine academic knowledge, practical experience and community involvement, which makes the practices well-rounded and useful for both educators and students.

Capstone Courses and Projects

This is a culminating course that requires senior grade students to integrate and apply what they have learnt in their academic journey. This course could be a project, a portfolio, an exhibit, or a performance. The practice allows students to reflect upon their educational journey, derive learnings and apply them appropriately.

Internships

A form of experiential learning, an internship provides students with a practical and professional setting in their field of interest. This helps them gain valuable real-world experience and exposure as well as feedback from professionals in the field. An internship can be taken as course credit with faculty approval as well.

Diversity/Global Learning (DGL)

DGL activities and courses help students learn about, understand and experience cultures, environments and world views that differ from their own. Intercultural studies and study abroad programs help students grow as compassionate and empathetic people who can appreciate unfamiliar perspectives and maintain respectful and healthy dialogues while addressing worldly issues. Collaborative tasks and interactive discussions facilitate this type of learning.

Writing-Intensive Courses

These courses encourage students to practice their writing skills by repeatedly producing and revising work for different audiences across a variety of disciplines. This act promotes growth through constructive and timely feedback and an improvement in areas such as quantitative reasoning, communication and information literacy.

Collaborative Projects

These tasks are performed over a sustained period of time to foster active learning and cooperative bonds between team members of diverse backgrounds. Students learn to express themselves and develop their skills through peer insights and hone their listening skills in the process as well.

Common Intellectual Experiences (CIEs)

A contemporary approach to the idea of “core” courses in a curriculum, CIEs include a set of required, general programs that combine and explore broad themes in an interactive and collaborative environment. The idea is to bring students and faculty from different environments together in a setting that facilitates interdisciplinary learning within and beyond the classroom. This can be done through study, common fields of interest and experiences. It gives students a new perspective on their learnings, and strengthens relationships between teaching and learning groups across disciplines.

Learning Communities

This practice involves having a group of students jointly enroll in two or more classes. This approach brings students and faculty with common interests together to exchange similar themes and ideas. This boosts interaction between people from different backgrounds by providing shared experiences and helps them engage in campus life better.

Undergraduate Research

Some of the ways this approach can be manifested is through an independent study, a project or a student research position. These research opportunities aim to expose students to the process of empirical observation and systematic research methods by working over a period of time to nurture scientific curiosity and relate classwork to hands-on learning.

Service Learning and Community-Based Learning

This practice implements experiential learning by engaging students in field-based situations. With direct experience of the real-world issues they are studying about, students are tasked with analyzing and finding solutions using their knowledge and through service. Working with community partners integrates meaningful community service with coursework, teaches compassion and promotes the philosophy of giving back, making endeavors such as volunteering an enriching learning experience.

ePortfolios

ePortfolios are digital repositories of student work done over time, providing a highly accessible, secure, portable and updatable resource. This collection allows students to reflect upon their personal and academic growth, connect learning outcomes with their work, and demonstrate competence in their field. A well-curated ePortfolio is an accumulation of a student’s work and their accomplishments and can be shared with other audiences to enhance career readiness and learning potential.

First-Year Seminars and Experiences

These programs help transition new students into university life by having regular group interactions with other students and faculty. These experiences are in place to help boost information literacy, critical thinking and communication skills to develop students’ intellectual capabilities. They provide a foundation for further learning and prepare students for their academic futures.

Eight Key Elements of High-Impact Practices

Kuh, O’Donnell and Reed (2013) identified a set of pedagogical principles, also known as the eight key elements of HIPs. Each HIP integrates multiple key elements that promote deep learning and student development. The Eight Key Elements that are listed below ensure that HIPs are effective by emphasizing rigorous standards, active and collaborative learning, diverse experiences, continuous feedback, reflective practice, and real-world application.

Performance expectations set at appropriately high levels.

Description: Students are challenged beyond their current ability levels at higher, more complex levels than “identify, define, and explain”. 

Examples:

    • Create modules that meet the complexity level of the course outcome, with assignments and their rubrics set at higher levels of learning.

    • Incorporate content, tasks, inquiry-intensive projects and instructions that aim for more complex levels of learning, problem solving, analyzing and formulating.

Significant investment and effort over an extended period of time.

Description: Students work over the course of the academic term on multiple-part assignments.

Examples:

    • Assignments, group tasks and community engagement activities with periodic feedback given on work.

    • Scaffolded projects, papers, presentations and tasks that require higher levels of time invested.

Interactions with faculty and peers about substantive matters.

Description: Students come together in groups, teams, learning communities, and discussions.

Examples:

    • Discuss common readings and share topic-based media. Evaluate discussion group postings and encourage student replies; create a system that facilitates peer mentoring and peer reviews.

    • Meet outside of class, attend events, have mandatory interactions with the instructor.

Diverse encounters exposed to and must contend with people and circumstances unfamiliar.

Description: Students must interact in settings with people of backgrounds and demographics unfamiliar to them.

Examples:

    • Assignments, activities, low stakes assessments, exams, readings, sharing relevant media and journaling observations and making connections between classes and experiences, exploring archives.

    • Interactive environments involving guest speakers, virtual reality, data, artifacts, cases, performances, demonstrations, activities, imagery and simulations.

    • Field experiences and service-learning; immersing students in diverse demographic settings, attending events and interviewing.

Frequent, timely, and constructive feedback.

Description: Students must meet with instructors (or peers) and receive suggestions at various points to discuss problems, challenges, progress, and next steps through to completion.

Examples:

    • Weekly reading and summarization tasks, discussion posts, homework problems, designs, lab reports and activities.

    • Low stakes assessments, periodic quizzing and polling modules, peer reviews with instructor feedback and scaffolded assignments with rubrics for each step.

Periodic, structured opportunities to reflect and integrate learning.

Description: Students must recap and elaborate upon learned concepts and how they connect at various points in the course, drawing upon materials and explaining proficiencies.

Examples:

    • Concept mapping, requirements for reflective posts and essays, portfolios, journals and visuals.

    • Logging interpretations and implications; encouraging broader perspectives through pre- and post-assessment reflections.

Periodic, structured opportunities to reflect and integrate learning.

Description: Students engaging in activities that extend the classroom learning into practical, real-world environments. This enables them to apply theoretical knowledge to actual situations, enhancing understanding and retention of learned material.

Examples:

    • Internships, practicum, or field placements that require students apply the knowledge and skills acquired during their program of study.

    • Supervisor-mediated discussions among student workers that encourage students to reflect on and see the connections between their studies and experiences in the work setting.

Public demonstration of competence.

Description: To peers, faculty, work-setting, supervising staff, supervisor, or faculty member, panelists, boards, reviewers, committees, etc.

Examples:

    • Courses could include a required oral narrative, demonstration, production or performance evaluated by peers, instructors, or other staff members.

    • Including structured presentations, debates, exhibits or performances. 

How the Eight Key Elements Align with HIPs 

The following lists the eight key elements and provides explanations as to how each key element aligns to high-impact practices: 

Key Element

How It Aligns With HIPs

Performance expectations set at appropriately high levels.

All HIPs involve setting high standards for student performance, requiring critical thinking, problem-solving, and the application of knowledge. 

Significant investment of time and effort by students over an extended period of time.

HIPs like undergraduate research, internships, and capstone projects require sustained effort and engagement.

Interactions with faculty and peers about substantive matters. Learning communities, writing-intensive courses, and collaborative assignments promote ongoing dialogue and interaction on significant topics.
Experiences with diversity, wherein students are exposed to and must contend with people and circumstances that differ from those with which students are familiar. Diversity/global learning and service learning/community-based learning directly expose students to diverse environments and challenges.
Frequent, timely, and constructive feedback. Writing-intensive courses and undergraduate research often involve regular feedback loops between students and instructors.
Periodic, structured opportunities to reflect and integrate learning.

ePortfolios and capstone projects provide structured reflection on accumulated knowledge and skills.

Opportunities to discover relevance of learning through real-world applications. Internships, service learning, and community-based learning connect classroom learning with practical, real-world applications.
Public demonstration of competence.

Capstone courses, projects, and ePortfolios often culminate in public presentations or demonstrations of students' acquired skills and knowledge.

The Comparison of HIPs and Eight Key Elements Table (Mackh, 2021) illustrates the relationship between the eleven HIPs and the Eight Key Elements.

HIPs Resources

GER HIPs Course Checklist

Use the GER HIPs Checklist to review your GER course to indicate where High-Impact Key Elements currently appear in your course.

Sample Syllabus

This example syllabus is structured to incorporate multiple High-Impact Key Elements.

HIPs Course Design Tools & Examples

The HIPs Course Design Tools provide examples and templates to facilitate easy design and embedding of the HIPs Eight Key Elements into specific course components, pedagogical strategies, and assessment activities. Each tool can be used individually or as program cohorts. The HIPs features work best when supported by other aspects of your course that are identified in the HIPs Design Tools below.

Course Design Examples

This document highlights a multitude of examples for each HIP key element in various contexts.

HIPs Metric Tools and Rubrics

The HIPs Metrics provide helpful self-assessment tools to guide the design and redesign of courses in the form of rubrics. Though frequently used by individual instructors, the HIPs metrics are essential tools for scaling HIPs course design and measuring the strength of the HIPs quality. The HIPs Key Elements work best when supported by other aspects of your course that are included in the HIPs rubrics and metrics. For example, the HIPs "Assignment" rubric will guide you to include inclusive language, scaffolding smaller parts, or lowering a very high-stakes assignment to smaller, incremental points.

HIPs Scaling Tools

The HIPs Scaling Tools provide templates, data collection models, and metrics for scoring HIPs as a program or department. Gathering data before and after change initiatives can provide motivating evidence to guide change as well as a means for rewarding exemplary change.

  • HIPs-rich Curriculum Mapping Template: Utilize this if you would like to create a curriculum-mapping plan for your unit, customize mapping templates, or collaborate on a professional development mapping exercise with your unit to scale and sustain HIPs across your curriculum. CETL can facilitate a department or program-wide session focusing on these tasks.

  • Instructor HIPs Pre-Post Survey: Determine where your program instructors' HIPs strengths are and which are missing. This can help individuals and programs set goals and identify professional development needs. You may use the Qualtrics survey tool for this and CETL can arrange to have the survey customized for your unit.

  • HIPs-rich Syllabus Rubric: Determine the presence and strength or patterns of gaps in HIPs presence in your courses. This can help individuals and programs set course and curriculum goals and identify professional development needs. Learning communities can also work collaboratively to identify HIPs features to embed across their courses and sections. You may request CETL for data on current UWM pre-and post-syllabus HIPs modification from several cohorts.

For assistance in planning to embed the High Impact Key Elements across your curriculum and sustaining their presence and impact, please contact cetl@uwm.edu requesting Connie Schroeder in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. CETL can arrange sessions to help create map templates, set up the Qualtrics survey tool and provide data on HIPs effectiveness on courses


References

(Finley & McNair, 2013) Assessing Underserved Students’ Engagement in High-Impact Practices [Report]. Association of American Colleges & Universities. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED582014.pdf

High-Impact Practices: Enhancing the Student Experience. (n.d.). Teaching and Learning Resource Center. https://teaching.resources.osu.edu/teaching-topics/high-impact-practices-enhancing

Kuh, G. D., O’Donnell, K., & Reed, S. D. (2013). Ensuring Quality & Taking High-Impact Practices to Scale. AAC&U, Association of American Colleges and Universities. https://www.aacu.org/publication/ensuring-quality-and-taking-high-impact-practices-to-scale




KeywordsHIPs High-Impact Practices Syllabus Teaching Strategy   Doc ID139048
OwnerIshita G.GroupCETL
Created2024-08-09 11:44:28Updated2024-09-30 15:18:42
SitesUW-Milwaukee Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
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