Last year, in fall 2015, New York Tech engaged in two processes: 1) developing an institution-wide set of Learning and Achievement Goals, and 2) revisiting the 2030 strategic plan.

In our Learning and Achievement Goals, we promise to prepare our students not only for work, but also to give them opportunities to develop a mindset to become engaged in their communities.

In the university’s 2030 2.0 plan, we prioritize incorporating high-impact educational practices (HIPs) into our curricula, making them a graduation requirement and a defining feature of an New York Tech education. HIPs are activities that research has shown encourages deep learning – learning that persists and is cumulative.

The literature on teaching and learning reveals that specific activities are “high-impact,” such as collaborative assignments and projects, undergraduate research, community-based and service learning, capstone courses and projects, and diversity/global learning. These and other HIPs create opportunities for active and engaged learning – which can, in turn, help students cultivate the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in work, life, and citizenship.

Perhaps more important, though, is the design of these HIPs. The most effective HIPs include the following five characteristics:

1. Students must invest time and effort in a purposeful task.
2. Students interact with faculty and peers about substantive matters.
3. Students receive frequent feedback about their work and guidance about how they can make improvements.
4. Students connect disciplinary content with real-world experience when they apply knowledge and skills from the discipline to a real-world problem.
5. Students discover connections between the curriculum, their learning, and personal experience though a reflective writing component.

Join the Conversation

Please join your colleagues in an online conversation, November 7–13, to explore these ideas in depth. In this workshop, Designing High Impact Practices for Teaching and Learning, participants will:

1. define high impact practices
2. discuss the five characteristics of well-designed HIPs
3. share current practices at New York Tech
4. explore in depth how to incorporate HIPs within a course
5. share aspirations for designing HIPs throughout your programs

The workshop will be held asynchronously on VoiceThread, an asynchronous discussion tool that is also available to all faculty for use in their courses. RSVP at http://bit.ly/2e4zPF8

Resources:

• Kuh, G. (2008). High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter. Washington, DC: AAC&U.
• Kuh, G. (2008). “Why Integration and Engagement Are Essential to Effective Educational Practice in the Twenty-First Century,” Peer Review 10, 4: 27–28.
• Kuh, G., K. O’Donnell, and S. Reed. (2013). Ensuring Quality and Taking High-Impact Practices to Scale. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities [AAC&U].