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What are high impact practices (HIPs)?
High-Impact Practices (HIPs) are "techniques and designs for teaching and learning that have proven to be beneficial for student engagement and successful learning among students from many backgrounds. Through intentional program design and advanced pedagogy, these types of practices can enhance student learning and work to narrow gaps in achievement across student populations."
Importantly, HIPs generally benefit all students, and tend to benefit students from historically underserved populations to a greater extent. UWL is committed to students experiencing more than one HIP by ensuring access across disciplines and experiences.
Key Elements of High Impact Practices
Key characteristics of High Impact Practices (HIPs)
- Expectations set at appropriately high levels
- Significant amount of time and effort over an extended period of time
- Interactions with faculty and peers about substantive matters
- Experiences with diversity
- Frequent, timely, and constructive feedback
- Periodic, structured opportunities to reflect
- Real world applications
- Public demonstration of competence
Examples of High Impact Practices
The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) indicates the following as educational experiences that can qualify as a high impact practice (HIP) if properly designed and executed.
- Capstone Courses and Project
- Collaborative Assignments and Projects
- Common Intellectual Experiences
- Diversity/Global Learning
- ePortfolios
- First-Year Seminars and Experiences
- Internships
- Learning Communities
- Open Educational Resources (OER)
- Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
- Undergraduate Research
- Writing-Intensive Courses
Other learning opportunities can have similar positive effects on student learning (e.g., campus employment, athletics, marching band) presuming the key elements of a HIP are enacted.
Instructional HIPs
HIPs can be implemented in a wide range of courses and experiences. Careful design is the primary technique for successfully implementing effective practices.
Instructors are encouraged to incorporate high impact practices into their courses and the following HIPs are
- Engaging students in high-impact First Year Experiences fosters development of learning goals and formation of relationships with instructors and peers, in turn, building a strong foundation for learning.
- Meaning-making, interacting with instructors, students, and peers, sustained engagement, and metacognition all contribute to the high-impact nature of writing.
- If a collaborative assignment is complex and challenging, engages students with diverse perspectives, and incorporates individual accountability and autonomy, it is likely to have greater impacts on student learning.
- The potential benefits of undergraduate research for student learning are practicing skills of their discipline, learning to work independently, building tolerance for learning challenges, transforming the student/teacher relationship, and clarifying career goals.
- Experiential learning (e.g., service learning, internships, and diversity/global learning) integrates learning in the classroom with authentic experiences outside of the classroom. These opportunities for students to apply and transfer what they learn to their lives, careers, and personal experiences makes experiential learning high-impact.
- ePortfolios promote ownership of learning, engagement with learning over time, practice being metacognitive, and authentic application of learning.
The University of Arizona was the source of the information above.
Strategies to develop HIPs within courses:
Tie the HIP directly to learning in your discipline, and prepare students to participate.
- Start with your learning outcome
- Identify the skills, knowledge, and attitudes students will need in order to participate successfully
- Design the process by which you will prepare students to participate in a HIPs
- Include the key characteristics of HIPs
- Contact CATL for additional help with developing strong instructional outcomes.
Additional Resources
References/Resources
Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987, March). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin. 39(7), 3–7. A search in Murphy Library's databases will yield several articles exploring discipline-based applications of these seven principles.
Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Kuh, G. D., and O'Donnell, K. (2013). Ensuring Quality & Taking High-Impact Practices to Scale. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Kuh, G., O'Donnell, K., & Schneider, C. (2017). HIPs at Ten. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 49(5), 8-16.
National Survey of Student Engagement (2007). Experiences that matter: Enhancing student learning and success—Annual Report 2007. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. Read the report here.
