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  1. UNG

High-Impact Practices (HIPs) Implementation Plan

The University System of Georgia (USG) seeks to expand the usage and coding of American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) High-Impact Practices (HIPs) across its 26 institutions. HIPs are a collection of pedagogical strategies that, according to extensive research, are proven to have a “high impact” on undergraduate learning, especially for first-generation and underserved students.

Many faculty at UNG already employ teaching practices in line with these, but they may not meet the requirements to count as “High-Impact” courses—or perhaps they do, but have not been officially coded as such. The USG has created a vehicle to further enhance your courses and collect data on how HIPs are being implemented at each of the 26 institutions. 

  • Benefits of HIP Training and Coding
  • HIP Resources
  • Working HIP Definitions
  • About the HIPs Implementation Plan

Benefits of HIP Training and Coding:

Even though many faculty at UNG already incorporate HIPs, the USG asks that all faculty complete the training to ensure coding consistency. To do so, all UNG faculty will:

  1. Complete USG Mini-course training
    • HIPs at UNG video (login required)
  2. Earn Bronze Badge
    • HIPs - Accessing the USG Course video (login required)
  3. Code your official HIP courses in Banner each semester
    • Using Banner as a Maintainer video

The following list explains the benefits associated with faculty completing the USG HIP training process and coding courses for HIPs in Banner:

  • For students: In addition to improved course content, students could record completed HIPs courses on their resumes. Additionally, disadvantaged students can gain access to resume-building opportunities that they may not have had otherwise.
  • For Faculty: Faculty will hone/develop additional pedagogical skills. Course codes may attract highly motivated students to your courses. Also, faculty could include the HIPs course badges on their Faculty Annual Review in terms of “student success.”
  • For Administrators: By completing the training, administrators have evidence to point to consistency of HIP coding across courses and programs. Additionally, HIP codes allow administrators to further track and analyze student success, such as the number of HIPs students encounter during a major.

Many UNG faculty are already incorporating HIPs in their classes. By coding a class as a HIP course, students will be able to better locate classes that utilize these practices prior to registration and allow easier tracking by the University System of Georgia.

Accessing HIP Training and Coding

  • Getting started with the HIP Training Mini-Course (PDF)
  • HIPs - Accessing the USG Course video (login required)
  • HIPs at UNG video (login required)
  • myUNG HIPs Documents (login required)
  • Using Banner as a Maintainer video
  • Using Banner as an Approver video

Support for MomentumU@USG is provided by the USG Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE). Complete a support request.

Additional Resources

  • Faculty Academy on HIPs
  • LEAP at UNG
  • Service-Learning at UNG
  • Service Learning Tool Kit (PDF)
  • AACU High-Impact Practices
  • What is Undergraduate Research?
  • What are Capstone Projects?
  • What is Service Learning?
  • “Where’s my coffee??”: When work-based learning is and is not “High-Impact”
  • Center for Teaching, Learning, and Leadership (CTLL)

Working HIP Definitions

  • Undergraduate Research

    This High-Impact Practice facilitates students’ active engagement in systematic investigation, research, and creative projects. The goal is to involve students with contested questions, empirical observations, cutting-edge technologies, and the sense of excitement that comes from working to answer important questions and generate knowledge. In Undergraduate Research, students produce field-specific knowledge under the guidance of or in collaboration with faculty. Although students will work at a level appropriate to their scholarly development, the project itself could produce intellectual or creative contributions worthy of dissemination in a professional venue. The research process unfolds over an extended period of time and is supported by dialog and iterative feedback with sponsoring faculty as well as critical reflection and revision by the student.

    Students who participate in Undergraduate Research:

    1. Build professional relationships with faculty mentors
    2. Gain firsthand experience with the production of scholarly/scientific knowledge
    3. Apply skills and knowledge from the classroom to “real-world” problems

    Example:

    Over the course of a semester, students in an English class produce lengthy analytical essays concerning texts of the Harlem Renaissance. They ground their writing in the secondary literature, apply methodologies acceptable in the field, and follow the guidelines of a professional journal. They turn in multiple drafts and meet with the professor to discuss their work. At the end of the semester, the class hosts an open symposium in which students present their findings. Students are further encouraged to submit abstracts to an undergraduate research conference or manuscripts to an undergraduate research journal.

    Non-Example:

    Students write essays concerning texts of the Harlem Renaissance. They turn them in and receive a grade and comments from the professor.

  • Work-Based Learning

    This High-Impact Practice provides students an opportunity to apply the knowledge gained in their courses through direct experience in a work setting—preferably related to their career interests. Work-Based Learning gives students the benefit of supervision and coaching from professionals in the field, and it can provide opportunities to develop important skill sets within their discipline. Students complete a project or paper that is approved by a faculty member. Work-Based Learning courses should involve a significant investment of time and effort by the student where they engage in direct experiences over the course of a semester. Students may involve themselves in an apprenticeship, internship, job shadowing, or other similar practice under the supervision of an organizational member in the work setting. Coursework typically includes journaling assignments with frequent and constructive feedback from faculty and/or supervisors and opportunities for students to apply the knowledge and skills acquired during their program of study. 

    Examples:

    • Nursing students participate in hospital-based shadowing experiences.
    • Education students complete student teaching experiences in a school setting.
    • Business students participate in internships where they complete tasks related to their field of study.

    Non-Examples:

    • Students get coffee or pick up dry cleaning for executives.
  • Capstones

    Capstone courses or projects are climactic opportunities for students nearing the end of their educational programs. The discipline-appropriate product, which encompasses a wide range of skills and knowledge, allows students to integrate key concepts and practices and demonstrate competence across general education requirements acquired while completing their degree program. Students work closely with a supervising faculty member to develop the creative projects, activities, or theses that serve as a major time investment component of the course. 

    Examples:

    • Language, literature, writing, teaching, or art portfolios that consist of a number of creative pieces that showcase the author’s talents. 
    • Local health initiative plans that address access to and affordability of health care scenarios.
    • Mechanical apparatus designed, engineered, and built by the student.
    • Business or efficiency plans that map out future objectives for a business and strategies to achieve them.
    • Musical compositions or performances with notable scope and intensity that showcases the student’s knowledge and capabilities. 
    • Thesis or research paper that is multi-faceted and includes an extensive literature review.

    Non-examples:

    • Students attend a series of lectures, presentations or performances provided by invited faculty or professionals where they sit passively and listen.
    • Students read discipline-specific literature and summarize each item for a grade. 
  • Service Learning

    Service Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community work with the course curriculum, is closely tied to course objectives, requires reflection to enrich the learning experience, teaches civic responsibility, provides real-work experiences, and strengthens communities. It combines community work with explicit learning objectives, preparation, and reflection. Students involved in service learning are expected not only to provide direct service to the community, but also to learn about the context in which the service is provided and address challenges facing the community, the connection between the service and their academic coursework, and their roles as citizens. This pedagogy focuses on critical, creative, and reflective thinking in order to develop students’ academic skills, civic responsibility and commitment to the community. The learning experience should culminate in a reflective paper or other assignment that demonstrates their learning over the course of the semester. 

    Additional definitions associated with service learning: 

    Community – People and organizations coming together either through a common bond or stake in a given interest or set of interests. The term community can be self-defined or can be geographic. The term community also connotes a sustainable climate to be created.

    Community Engagement – Service Learning engages students in community engagement through collaborative partnerships between the University of North Georgia and community members. Community partners are considered co-educators in the learning process of students. Community engagement is a vehicle for bringing about changes that will improve the health of the community and its members. 

    Partnership – A close mutual cooperation between parties having shared interests, responsibilities, privileges, and power. 

    Reflection – An essential component of Service Learning that serves to connect the community engagement/Service Learning experiences and course content. This process allows students to have better insight about their experience and connections to course materials while developing critical and creative learning skills, communication skills, and a sense of both civic responsibility and multicultural understanding. 

    Examples: 

    • International relations students participate in a multicultural community outreach event.
    • Foreign language students offer their translation services to immigrant families.
    • Education candidates tutor k-12 students after school.

    Non-examples:

    • Helping out at a local charity without approval from the course instructor.
    • Previous charity work completed by a student prior to the course.
    • Any volunteer work that does not relate to the course objectives.

About the HIPs Implementation Plan

To ensure that HIPs courses meet the official AAC&U designation, the USG created a short training module on the 8 essential elements of HIPs, which is hosted on the USG D2L platform. The USG would like faculty at all 26 institutions to complete the training, after which they will enter information about their HIPs courses into a Banner coding system. This will allow faculty, administrators, and current/prospective students to observe HIPs statuses through courses, degrees, programs, and institutions.

In Fall of 2020, the USG asked the provosts of the 26 institutions to nominate a HIPs Implementation team. Provost Gille selected the following to participate: Bryan Dawson (Psychological Science), Lindsay Linsky (Education), Jennifer Mook (Biology), Esther Morgan-Ellis (Music)

Over the past two years, the UNG HIPs Team learned about HIPs activities at other USG institutions, completed the training themselves, and conducted a pilot of the training with a group of faculty around campus. Additionally, they solicited feedback on the plan and working HIPs definitions from the faculty senate prior to moving forward.

Faculty HIPs Training using the USG mini-course will begin in Fall 2022, and Banner HIPs coding of the four focus HIPs will begin Spring 2023.

For the 2022-2023 Academic Year, UNG is focusing on the following four HIPs:

  1. Undergraduate Research
  2. Capstones
  3. Work-Based Learning
  4. Service Learning
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