Course Design

High Impact Practices (HIPs) focus on equity of access and outcomes, especially for students historically underrepresented in college success measures. High Impact Practices (HIPs) include teaching approaches like Service Learning, Collaborative Projects, Undergraduate Research, Internships, Diversity Global Learning, among others. The essential premise is that the more a student is engaged in learning, the more they will persist and complete. George Kuh drew attention to High Impact Practices in his seminal research in 2008. Since then, institutions of higher learning have implemented HIPs and report higher student engagement, deeper student learning, and increased retention in college.  A recent national study concludes that community-based projects have the most impact on students of color in the community college. 

HIPs have eight components in common: challenging goals are achieved, time spent on task, substantive conversations with faculty and peers, experiences with diversity, regular and constructive feedback, opportunities for reflective and integrative thinking, real world applications of learning, and public demonstrations of competence. For example, through a Service Learning project students work harder than what they thought they were capable of and achieve something of significance outside the classroom; the students report developing closer relationships with peers and faculty and learning from diverse people and circumstances. To deepen learning, students engage in metacognitive reflection about themselves both as students and as citizens, as well as report out on such discoveries in applicable mediums (e.g., writing a feature article in the campus newspaper).