High-impact practices connect learners to experiences that foster success in their learning and carry through to their careers after graduation. Designing a high-impact practice requires consideration of more than just what happens in the classroom space.
What is a High Impact Practice?
High-impact practices, or HIPs, are active learning practices that promote deep learning, significantly engage students, and positively impact the retention and persistence of all students across diverse backgrounds (Kuh 2008a, Kuh & O'Donnell, 2013). While most would consider their instruction to strongly impact their learners, what activities are recognized to promote deep learning as Kuh and O’Donnell suggest? The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) identified eleven practices as high impact:
Capstone Courses and Projects
Collaborative Assignments and Projects
Common Intellectual Experiences
Diversity/Global Learning
ePortfolios
First-Year Seminars and Experiences
Internships
Learning Communities
Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
Undergraduate Research
Writing-Intensive Courses
They are high impact because they include purposeful tasks helping students to see how classroom content can work in a variety of settings such as their future workplace.
When are High-Impact Practices Experiential?
Create Your Experiential, High-Impact Practice
Consider signing up to attend an eCampus Faculty Development course on creating online, high-impact learning. Or, review the Experiential Learning Activity Planning Template and the Partnership Plan Template to brainstorm your own experiential learning activities.
Additional Resources
Kolb’s Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle from Simply Psychology
8 Principles of Good Practice for Experiential Learning from the Society for Experiential Education
