High-impact practices (HIPs) are a series of educational practices identified as having significant educational benefits for students who participate in them, particularly, as the AAC&U observes, those from demographics historically underserved by higher education. That means that incorporating one or more High-Impact Practices into your course can reap huge benefits for our students. The more practices they engage in over the course of their education, the greater the benefit.
However, as Kuh & Kinzie (2018) indicate, you can’t just throw in an HIP and assume it’s going to be impactful. HIPs must be implemented thoughtfully and aligned with desired outcomes and performances. The following resources will help you as you begin thinking about incorporating one or more HIP practices into your courses.
The 11 practices identified by AAC&U as High-Impact Practices are as follows:
Not every course needs to include high-impact practices to provide effective learning, but many of our courses can incorporate one or more of these practices in to help students become more engaged in their coursework - and in their communities.
What do your students need to learn and how might they best learn the information? First-year students might benefit from learning communities that allow them to meet other people and collaborate, for example.
Some questions to consider:
Help you students (and yourself!) succeed by breaking down the high-impact practice into smaller, more manageable pieces. This keeps everyone from being overwhelmed, provides opportunities to reflect and build upon previous work, offer feedback along the way, and course correct or adjust where needed.
Plus, if you started small, you already have some of the building blocks to incorporate.
As you build things in, make sure that you are tracking data and other useful metrics, such as students' grades and engagement, but also how quickly students are learning and mastering the information. Are you getting more in-depth questions than in prior semesters? Has your DFW rate changed?
And don't forget to incorporate the student feedback and reflections into your analysis. If students are benefitting from the HIP, you will see it!
Purpose: Encourage students to make connections between course content and personal experience.
Assignment Prompt:
Each week, write a 250-word journal entry responding to a prompt related to the course material. Focus on how the concepts apply to your life, your goals, or current events.
Example Prompt:
"This week we discussed ethical dilemmas in professional settings. Describe a time you witnessed or faced an ethical dilemma. What did you learn from it, and how might you respond differently now?"
Scaffolding Tips:
Note: this prompt also bypasses the students using AI to create their responses, since it focuses on them applying it to their own lives and events.
Purpose: Introduce inquiry and evidence-based analysis in a condensed, online format.
Assignment Prompt:
Choose a topic of interest related to the course theme. Conduct a focused literature review (3–5 credible sources), formulate a clear research question, and present your findings in a digital poster or slide presentation. This project emphasizes developing research skills, critical thinking, and effective communication in an online environment.
Suggested Timeline:
Scaffolding Tips:
Online-Specific Adaptations:
Purpose: Connect learning with real-world social issues.
Assignment Prompt:
Choose a community (your own or one connected to course themes). Conduct informal interviews, attend an event, or do background research.
Submit:
Optional Add-on:
Scaffolding Tips:
If you have questions about implementing an HIP into your course, we're always happy to help! Set up a meeting with an instructional designer for one-on-one consultations.
To be designated as a HIP, the course must be submitted to the course change process through Curriculog.
