High Impact Practices

At least one “high impact practice” (active learning method) is used in each ELAC course to provide students with engaging, practical applications of theoretical frameworks. Examples of High Impact Practices are displayed below*. These High Impact Practices support the five Learning Outcomes, a student’s major and academic interests, and their career success and employability.

First Year Seminars and Experiences

High-quality experiences emphasize critical inquiry, frequent writing, information literacy, and collaborative learning to enhance students' intellectual and practical competencies. These seminars may also engage students with cutting-edge scholarship questions and faculty research.

Common Intellectual Experiences

Common intellectual experiences today include required courses or structured general education programs with themes like technology and society. These programs offer diverse options, integrating advanced studies and learning communities.

Learning Communities

Learning communities integrate courses, fostering collaboration among students and professors around significant, real-world questions. This approach involves linked courses exploring common topics through diverse perspectives, including connections between liberal arts and professional courses, and may include service learning.

Writing-Intensive Courses

These courses emphasize writing at all levels of instruction and across the curriculum, including final-year projects. Students are encouraged to produce and revise various forms of writing for different audiences in different disciplines.

Collaborative Assignments and Projects

Collaborative assignments and projects involve learning to work with others, solving problems collectively, and enhancing individual understanding by valuing diverse insights. Methods include study groups, team-based assignments, cooperative writing, and joint research efforts.

Undergraduate Research

Courses engage students in early research, connecting key concepts with real-world questions and cutting-edge technologies, fostering excitement in addressing important issues.

Diversity/Global Learning

These studies, covering US diversity or global cultures, address challenging issues like racial and gender inequality. Intercultural studies are often enriched through community-based experiential learning or study abroad programs.

ePortfolios

ePortfolios serve multiple purposes in education, including teaching and learning, programmatic assessment, and career development. These digital portfolios allow students to accumulate and reflect on their work, showcasing selected items to professors, advisors, and potential employers.

Service Learning, Community-based Learning

Service learning integrates classroom study with hands-on experience in the community, fostering real-world problem-solving. Students apply their learning in community settings and reflect on these experiences in the classroom, preparing them for citizenship, work, and life.

Internships

Internships provide hands-on experiential learning in a career-related setting, with supervision from professionals. If taken for credit, students complete a faculty-approved project or paper.

Capstone Projects

Capstone courses are final projects for graduating college students, integrating their learning into a research paper, performance, portfolio, or artwork exhibit. Offered in both departmental programs and general education.

* High Impact Practice descriptions from American Association of Colleges and Universities High-Impact Practices