High-Impact Practices (HIPs) at UNG

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. 

• What are Capstone Projects?

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. 

This High-Impact Practice brings first-year students together in a seminar or program that places a strong emphasis on critical inquiry, frequent writing, information literacy, collaborative learning, and/or other skills that develop students’ intellectual and practical competencies. First-year seminars can also involve students with cutting-edge questions in scholarship and with faculty members’ own research. The purpose of a First-Year Experience is to acclimate students to the college environment and provide them with the intellectual and practical tools necessary to be successful in completing an undergraduate degree. The specific elements included in a First-Year Experience course will depend on its modality and scope, but the course will typically cover topics such as time management, study skills, campus resources, critical thinking, and effective communication. The goal is to equip first-year students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in their academic and personal lives during their college journey and beyond.

Students in Learning Communities take two or more linked courses as a group and work closely with one another and with their professors. Many learning communities explore a common topic and/or common readings through the lenses of different disciplines. The key goals for learning communities are to encourage integration of learning across courses and to involve students with “big questions” that matter beyond the classroom.

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. 

• Service-Learning at UNG
• What is Service Learning?
• Service Learning Toolkit (PDF)

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.

The Study Abroad High-Impact Practices utilize the definitions provided in Appendix C: Study Abroad Course Section Attributes in USG’s Business Procedures. Please work closely with the Center for Global Engagement if you are working with this type of High-Impact Practice.

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.

• What is Undergraduate Research?
• Undergraduate Research Toolkit (PDF)

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.

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. 

• “Where’s my coffee??”: When work-based learning is and is not “High-Impact”

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.