High-impact Educational Practice Research Articles

Indications of Community College Virtual International Exchange Outcomes: Global Perspective-Taking and Self-Efficacy

This study explored student learning outcomes related to virtual international exchange, namely global perspective-taking and self-efficacy, among a sample of 76 community college students in the United States. Viewing virtual exchange as a possible high-impact educational practice, we anticipated that participation would have a positive relationship with these two outcomes. To test this hypothesis, we used survey data collected from students attending two community colleges in the US Southeast. Using a pre-test/post-test design, we estimated linear regression models to explore the relationship between virtual exchange participation and these two outcomes, measured using the Global Perspectives Inventory and the New General Self-efficacy Scale. Counter to expectation, we found that virtual exchange was not generally significantly related to changes in students’ global perspective-taking or sense of self-efficacy. We hypothesize these null findings relate to characteristics of virtual exchange programs and differences between virtual exchange and other international experiences like study abroad.

Sociology in Action: The Experiential Pedagogy of Project Community

ABSTRACT Established by student activists in the 1960s, Project Community in the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan (U-M), Ann Arbor, is one of the longest-running community-engaged learning programs in the country. Community-engaged learning courses like Project Community have been identified by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) as a high-impact educational practice because they allow for simultaneous learning in the classroom and community (AAC&U 2022). This paper explores how Project Community utilizes various pedagogical approaches grounded in liberatory and social justice education to provide U-M students with the opportunity to learn how to engage in mutually beneficial, respectful, and ethical relationships with community members. The structure of this two-course sequence is described and examples of experiential activities are provided so that instructors can gain insights into how students can apply their sociological lens to real world experiences. Data from teaching evaluations and post-course surveys from Fall 2019–2022 are included to explore how Project Community has increased students’ awareness of their positionality in society, deepened their understanding of social inequalities, and strengthened their commitment to social responsibility.

The CURE assessment landscape from the instructor’s point of view: knowledge and skills assessments are highly valued support tools for CURE adoption

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are a high-impact educational practice that engage students with authentic research in the classroom. CURE development models include those designed and implemented at individual institutions to wide-reaching multi-institutional network CUREs. The latter have lowered barriers to implementation by providing a centralized support system, centralized training and curricula, and mentoring. CURE learning outcomes span the three domains of learning: knowledge, skills, and attitude. Assessment of these domains can serve a variety of purposes to a collection of different stakeholders. To better understand the CURE assessment landscape from the instructor’s point of view we surveyed instructors from an established network CURE. We found that these instructors, particularly those from associate’s colleges, overwhelmingly prefer use of knowledge and skills-based assessments over attitudinal CURE assessment instruments. Instructors value knowledge and skills assessment data when deciding whether to adopt a particular CURE and for identifying student misconceptions to improve CURE instruction, and for documentation necessary for Community College transfer agreements or for gaining approval from curriculum committees. CURE learning models have pointed toward use of generalizable instruments for measuring CURE outcomes, but since knowledge and skills assessments are typically CURE specific, obtaining funds for their development may not be realistic. To address this concern, we outline a CURE network stakeholder co-design process for developing and validating a knowledge and skills assessment instrument without external support or a sizable time commitment. We encourage network CUREs to leverage their communities to generate and validate knowledge and skills assessment instruments to further lower barriers for instructor adoption.

Excursions as an Immersion Pedagogy to Enhance Self-Directed Learning in Pre-Service Teacher Education

Pre-service teacher education should be underpinned by pedagogies that would enhance self-directed learning. Future teachers need to create contexts in the classrooms that would enable learners to, as self-directed learners, identify individual learning goals for themselves, search for appropriate resources, and monitor and assess their own learning. Self-directed learning is essential to adequately prepare learners for a complex and changing world. This paper focuses on the affordances of a first-year student teacher excursion to scaffold learning and the development of a professional identity, and to address the ‘apprenticeship of observation’ that could prevent optimal learning. Pre-service teachers often enter the Bachelor of Education degree with a naïve understanding of the teaching profession. Furthermore, they come from school contexts that often do not enhance self-directed learning. The faculties of education from three different universities have engaged in excursions for first-year student teachers, where the student teachers, as Homo ludens (the playing human), engage in problem-based and cooperative learning activities, exploring the complexities of the teaching profession. Social constructivism underpins the excursion. Findings over 17 years (2007–2023) across three universities—the University of Johannesburg, North-West University and the University of the Western Cape—show that such immersion pedagogy is a high-impact educational practice, in which student teachers learn from practice. The findings show that the excursion provides pre-service teachers with a more nuanced understanding of the teaching profession, enhanced sensitivity to diversity, social justice and inclusivity, an understanding of the value of reflection, and a sense of belonging as a student in the higher education sector. The findings also highlight the affordances of excursions to enhance self-directed learning, an important attribute to ensure continued professional development. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions had to rethink teaching and learning, and this article also explores the transformation of face-to-face excursions to virtual online excursions.

The Role of High Impact Practices in an Online Graduate Program: Leveraging the Success

A feeling of isolation has been cited in the literature as one of the main reasons students dropped off their online courses or programs. Innovations in instructional design and delivery can boost student engagement, advance student learning, and enhance student success. Based on the findings generated from countless evidence-based research, high-impact educational practices are effective teaching strategies and can substantially benefit students. This paper presents a case study in which a capstone course incorporated with ePortfolio in an online master’s program in healthcare administration is examined. This study's primary goal is to assess students' perceptions of the usefulness of ePortfolio and their overall experience in the capstone course. The findings shed light on how a program implemented ePortfolio in the entire program could impact students’ acceptance and view of ePortfolio. Limitations of this research study are also presented. The contribution of this case study to high-impact educational practice research and implications for institutional decision-makers and educators are also discussed.

Using attention-based neural networks for predicting student learning outcomes in service-learning

As a high-impact educational practice, service-learning has demonstrated success in positively influencing students’ overall development, and much work has been done on investigating student learning outcomes from service-learning. A particular direction is to model students’ learning outcomes in the context of their learning experience, i.e., the various student, course, and pedagogical elements. It contributes to a better understanding of the learning process, a more accurate prediction of students’ attainments on the learning outcomes, and improvements in the design of learning activities to maximize student learning. However, most of the existing work in this area relies on statistical analysis that makes assumptions about attribute independence or simple linear dependence, which may not accurately reflect real-life scenarios. In contrast, the study described in this paper adopted a neural network-based approach to investigate the impact of students’ learning experience on different service-learning outcomes. A neural network with attention mechanisms was constructed to predict students’ service-learning outcomes by modeling the contextual information from their various learning experiences. In-depth evaluation experiments on a large-scale dataset collected from more than 10,000 students showed that this proposed model achieved better accuracy on predicting service-learning outcomes. More importantly, it could capture the interdependence between different aspects of student learning experience and the learning outcomes. We believe that this framework can be extended to student modeling for other types of learning activities.

Mentoring and engaging undergraduate students in authentic research in mammalogy

Abstract Undergraduate research is a high-impact educational practice that helps students develop essential professional and personal skills. These skills include tangible field methods and lab techniques, critical thinking, effective communication, integrated and complex problem-solving, metacognition, self-confidence, collegiality, information literacy, and identity development. Participation in undergraduate research experiences increases academic performance, program retention, degree completion, and the number and diversity of students pursuing postbaccalaureate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics degrees. Mentors (faculty, postdoctoral fellow, and graduate students) also benefit from the undergraduate research process by generating publishable scholarship, improvement in leadership skills, and developing rich personal mentoring relationships. Further, a university or college itself benefits from increased institutional reputation and visibility within the scientific community. Nonetheless, many barriers impede students from pursuing research experiences, including a lack of awareness of research opportunities, unfamiliarity with the benefits of a research experience, personal or financial constraints, noncompetitive grade point averages, financial and family needs, maturity, and imposter syndrome. To help mitigate these issues and build a culture of undergraduate research, pathways for implementing undergraduate research in the field of mammalogy are discussed, in addition to advice on mentorship.

The Impact of Education Abroad Participation on College Student Success Among First-Generation Students

ABSTRACT This study utilized the large-scale, multi-institutional CASSIE dataset to examine the impact of education abroad participation on academic outcomes for first-generation college students. Using robust multivariate matching methodology that effectively minimized self-selection bias, results showed the magnitude of benefit offered by studying abroad was greater for first-generation students than for continuing-generation students. Even after matching on a variety of background and prior achievement variables, first-generation students who studied abroad had higher 4- and 6-year graduation rates, had higher cumulative GPA scores, and took less time to graduate—relative to first-generation students who did not study abroad. These findings suggest that education abroad programming can be leveraged as a high-impact educational practice to promote college completion rates among first-generation students.

Mapping Human Neuronal Diversity in the Search for New Therapeutics: Using Real Human Neuron Data Sets to Build Student Quantitative Skills.

Case studies are a high impact educational practice that engage students in collaborative problem solving through storytelling. HITS, an NSF funded research coordination network dedicated to exposing students to high-throughput discovery science, drove creation of this case. In this case, students imagine themselves as researchers developing new therapeutic drugs for epilepsy. Specifically, students work with the Allen Cell Types Database, which is the result of collaborative, interdisciplinary open science. Neurosurgeons partnered with the Allen institute to provide living human brain tissue for electrophysiological, morphological, and transcriptomic study. Students collaborate to collect and organize data, investigate a research question they identified, and perform fundamental statistical analyses to address their question. By leveraging the unique Cell Types dataset the case enhances student knowledge of epilepsy, illuminates high-throughput scientific approaches, and builds quantitative and research related skills. The case is also versatile and was implemented in two distinct courses. The case can also be taught in different modalities, in person or remote, with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous work. Indirect and direct measures along with quantitative and qualitative approaches were used for case assessment and improvement. Students performed well on case related exam questions, reported high confidence in their achievement of the learning outcomes, and enjoyed the case's link to neurological disease, real research data and advanced technological approaches. Our assessment findings and instructor implementation experiences are also included to facilitate the adoption or adaptation of the case for a variety of courses and/or modalities in neuroscience and STEM related curricula.

The VALUE of Community Engaged Teaching and Learning is in the Values: Advancing Students’ Learning Outcomes

Community engaged teaching and learning (CETL) is an active, authentic experiential learning pedagogy and a high impact educational practice (HIEP) that can advance undergraduate and graduate course learning outcomes. Using mixed-methods we heard from students from sociology courses about their CETL experiences. We highlight three specific insights. First, CETL can be used to achieve university-level learning outcomes. Second, CETL provides an opportunity to develop community engaged scholarship course learning outcomes linking CES principles to related knowledge, skills, and values. Third, CETL offers a unique opportunity to extend the conceptualization of civic values toward equity and social justice.

Pre-service Teachers Reflection on their Undergraduate Educational Research Experience through Online Instructional Delivery

Undergraduate research as a high-impact educational practice aims to develop the personal and professional growth of preservice teachers and prepares them to be effective practitioners in the field. With the sudden shift in instructional delivery, a dearth of studies focusing on students’ experiences in conducting research in the online learning environment is observed. This study examined the experiences of 80 preservice teachers from a teacher education institution implementing a pure online instructional delivery in conducting educational research through descriptive phenomenology. Their narrative accounts were obtained through their post-assessment reflective journal with seven guide questions and were analyzed using thematic analysis. Their nuances articulated that students' prior knowledge and experiences in research, presence of support groups, availability of learning resources, and perceived benefits were the enabling factors for their learning success. However, there were also challenges along the way such as communication barriers, lack of resources, overlapping responsibilities, and the quality of their output and performance. The presence of a supportive virtual learning environment and online learning community is critical to learning outcomes and the quality of learning experiences.

Evaluating pretravel study-abroad instruction utilizing curricular intervention and customized assessment

Abstract Study abroad (SA), as a high-impact educational practice, entails knowledge and understanding of culture and a travel mindset. While pre-travel orientations assist students in program preparations, the efficacy of such training is unknown and the path for improvement unclear without reflection or feedback. In this article, we report on the design and scoring of an assessment tool focusing on student self-reflection. Over 200 students preparing for SA completed knowledge-based multiple-choice questions, as well as cultural competency and reflection-based free-response questions. This learning-by-doing intervention survey provided data on students’ understanding of host-country logistics, awareness of culture-specific practices, recognition of cultural symbols, and program fit with students’ goals. Student learning outcomes (SLOs) of SA orientation were aggregated primarily by gender, discipline, and SA requirements. Implementing a pre-departure assessment as an instructional tool stimulated reflection and identified discipline- and gender-specific SLOs to assist in designing future orientations for an improved SA experience.

Addressing Motivations and Barriers to Research Involvement during Medical School among Osteopathic Medical Students in the United States

Involvement in research is regarded as a high-impact educational practice, which, for medical professionals, is associated with sharpened critical thinking and life-long learning skills, greater appreciation for evidence-based medicine, and better clinical competence scores. However, there are limited data regarding the research experience and/or interest among osteopathic medical students in the United States despite a rapidly increasing enrollment and expansion of the number of osteopathic medical schools. Thus, we administered an electronic survey examining prior research experience, interests, and perceptions about research participation during medical school to four successive classes of incoming first-year osteopathic medical students. We also performed focus groups with rising third-year osteopathic medical students around the topic of perceived barriers to and potential enablers of promoting research participation. This yielded a survey addendum where first-year osteopathic medical students provided feedback on the likelihood of specific incentives/enablers to encourage participation in research during medical school. Overall, osteopathic medical students are interested in research, view research experience as valuable, and perceive research experience as beneficial to future career development. Students perceive that the primary barrier to involvement in research is a potential negative impact upon performance in coursework. Feedback on the likelihood of specific enablers/incentives was also garnered. Our findings from a single institution may have important implications in defining the prior experiences and perceptions held by first-year osteopathic medical students. Specifically, our study indicates that research experiences intentionally designed with (1) a strong likelihood of gaining a publication, (2) financial compensation, and (3) the opportunity for short-term involvement, a flexible time commitment, and/or a dedicated time period are most likely to encourage research participation by osteopathic medical students.

The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Service-Learning Experiences Among Undergraduate Public Health Students in Hawai'i.

Service-learning is a high-impact educational practice at the core of the undergraduate public health degree at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM). This practice provides an invaluable learning experience and professional opportunity for students to collaborate with community partners and make significant contributions in the field. The COVID-19 pandemic halted or disrupted service-learning experiences as community partners adapted to shifting mandates and emergency orders. Surveying the rapidly evolving landscape of partner organizations to support service-learning is a challenge. Assessing changes to the program mentorship or satisfaction is the first step to developing protocols to ensure standardization of service-learning during times of crisis. This study will address if and how the pandemic impacted students' satisfaction with required service-learning experiences. Furthermore, authors hope to create a comprehensive list of practicum partnering organizations, both focused on pandemic response and, more generally, of the service-learning students at UHM, with the intent to increase students and community partners in local service-learning. Assessments were conducted to assess the impact of COVID-19 on undergraduate students' experiences with service-learning through use of a program exit survey. The authors hypothesized pandemic-related adjustments would not affect student satisfaction or skill development. Despite challenges associated with the pandemic and emergency online transitions, students persisted in personal and professional growth associated with service-learning. This developed resilience supports students as they graduate and enter a workforce adapting to remote work demands and community needs.

Field-based local stream research in undergraduate classes: an inquiry-based approach

ABSTRACT Experiential learning is recognized as a high-impact educational practice. Fieldwork is an important component of the geographic tradition. When implemented using an inquiry-based approach, fieldwork can be a highly effective form of experiential education. However, many geography instructors are dissuaded from implementing inquiry-based fieldwork because of logistical challenges. Here, a modular, semester-long fieldwork design is presented, involving inquiry-based research on local streams. This framework has been successfully implemented twice in undergraduate classes. A total of 37 undergraduate students did physical habitat assessments and water-quality monitoring on urban streams in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. Quantitative and qualitative anonymous student evaluations and student work products provide preliminary support for the approach’s effectiveness in enhancing student learning. The practical advantages of the presented fieldwork design are that it is less costly in time and money than fully field-based courses, it breaks up a large class into more manageable group sizes, and it alleviates some of the common concerns about accessibility, equity, and risk management. While still needing to be systematically assessed, the pedagogical benefits potentially include development of critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, interpersonal, and affective skills.

Developing Social Justice Outcomes Through Service Learning Among Sport Management Students

Service learning has been recognized as a high-impact educational practice that promotes students’ development of civic engagement and social justice outcomes. However, service-learning courses are not guaranteed to foster social justice outcomes and may perpetuate the very biases and stereotypes that social justice education is designed to counter. In addition, there is a lack of research assessing service-learning courses in sport management that are being used to promote a more critical form of social justice education rather than the mere awareness of social disparities. This article explores the ways in which an intentionally designed social justice service-learning course can potentially lead sport management students toward more equitable perceptions of service relationships. The research team analyzed reflection papers (N = 40) from students who each participated in one semester of the service-learning course across nine consecutive semesters. The following themes emerged from the data: charity-oriented relationship, social justice-oriented relationship, reciprocity, and a critique of paternalism. The findings in this study extend current sport management service-learning research by revealing how a social justice service-learning course can foster a more critical understanding of service through critical discussions, specific readings, critical reflection, and service activities.

Long-Term Impact of Living and Learning at High Altitude: An Altitude Physiology Class for Undergraduate Students

Alma College initiated an Altitude Physiology class in 1997 devoted to living and learning at high altitude (3440 m). The class incorporated several key elements of High-Impact Educational Practice including a strong student-research component and collaborative groups assignments. A retrospective survey was administered to alumni of the class to determine its long-term impact. Student responses ranged from “agree” to “strongly agree” with statements regarding the class’s impact on positive learning outcomes such as critical thinking, knowledge acquisition, synthesis of knowledge, and understanding of research. Students generally favored non-traditional formats such as living at altitude for gaining understanding of environmental physiology.

Land-grant University Strategic Plans: Are University-level Service-learning Goals Aligned with Construction Programs’ Goals?

ABSTRACT Community engagement within the construction classroom has the potential to enhance student learning while also fostering strong community relationships and meeting some of society’s most pressing needs. These activities afford students the opportunity to directly apply concepts learned in the classroom. Other outcomes include improved communication, teamwork, and the development of civic responsibility. Civic engagement through service learning qualifies as a high impact educational practice (HIP), and construction students have many options available through their applied discipline. Because of the complementary benefits to both students and the community, many universities include civic engagement as a goal in strategic plans. However, to realize successful implementation, goals at the university level need to follow through to the strategic plan goals of individual units. Starting with 106 land-grant institutions, 36 are identified as housing construction programs. Online research was conducted regarding strategic and unit-level plans, and follow-up interviews were held with 12 of the 36 schools. Results confirm and expand on the gap identified in previous research between university strategic plans and unit-level plans. With relatively small shifts, construction programs have the potential to improve student learning, the academic experience, meet community needs, and align with university strategic plans.

Current practices for community-based learning in schools of business

Community-based learning (CBL) is a high impact educational practice designed to provide students with opportunities to apply the theories and concepts they are learning to real-life contexts. This is particularly significant in schools of business to demonstrate societal impact, is required by AACSB accreditation, and encourages lifelong learning. However, limited information is available regarding the extent to which CBL has been implemented in schools of business, or specific factors related to its use, such as how it is supported and rewarded. This study consisted of a survey of deans in AACSB-accredited schools of business to identify current CBL practices. Findings indicate that CBL outcomes are strongly positive across students, faculty, school, university, and community stakeholders, yet most schools are still in the process of aligning related business strategy and mission with CBL as well as generating awareness and support for CBL.

Promoting the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Organic Chemistry Education through Undergraduate Research Experiences at WSSU

Undergraduate research is well recognized as an effective high-impact educational practice associated with student success in higher education. Actively engaging students in research experiences is considered as one of the several high-impact practices by many agencies including the American Chemical Society. Developing and maintaining an active undergraduate research program benefits both the faculty and students especially those from under-represented minority groups (URM). The infusion of research experiences into undergraduate curriculum enables students from all backgrounds to develop independent critical thinking skills, written and oral communications skills that are very important for successful careers in “STEM” area. Several strategies and activities such as a Peer Mentoring Program (PMP), funded research activities, the infusion of research into organic chemistry labs, undergraduate professional development, research group meetings, presentations at regional/national conferences, and publishing as co-authors on peer-review papers are vital in creating a welcoming research group that promotes the diversity, equity, and inclusion in organic chemistry education. The experiences working on funded research projects, presenting their research data at conferences and publishing papers as co-authors will greatly increase the under-represented minority (URM) students’ chance in landing a job or getting admitted into graduate/professional programs in STEM area.