Welcome to HIP Tips!
This webpage introduces High Impact Practices (HIPs) and concrete strategies for implementation in your courses. A new issue will be introduced monthly with brief videos and downloadable tip sheets featuring research, resources, and reflection questions. Contact Audrey Tocco (ajtocco@arizona.edu) with questions!
April HIP Tip: Use learning ePortfolios for meaning-making.
Click on the image below to watch a video that provides an overview of learning ePortfolios and how they encourage students to make meaning of their learning.
April Reflection Questions
- Did you create an ePortfolio as a student? If so, what purpose did it serve and what impact did it have on your learning, career, or life? If not, how do you think your learning/career/life might have been impacted by creating a learning ePortfolio as an undergraduate student?
- How do you think students might perceive creating a learning ePortfolio? From the student perspective, what benefits would a learning ePortfolio serve? What potential challenges might students face when developing a learning ePortfolio?
- How might you encourage students to collect and add learning artifacts (e.g., signature assignments) to their ePortfolios?
March HIP Tip: Enhance with experiential learning.
Three HIPs in one!
Click on the image below to watch a video that provides an overview of service learning, internships, and diversity/global learning.
March Reflection Questions
- Did you participate in service learning and/or internships as a student? If so, how did these experiences influence your learning and perspective-taking? If not, how do you think participation in service learning or internships would have impacted your learning and perspective-taking?
- How do you encourage students to apply what they learn in class to the community, their lives, or their careers?
- What are some ways in which you can encourage students to share their backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives in your courses?
February HIP Tip: Promote student involvement in undergraduate research experiences.
Click on the image below to watch a video that provides an overview of undergraduate research as a high impact practice.
February Reflection Questions
- How were you involved with research as an undergraduate student? What impacts did being involved in research have on your personal and professional development?
- Why might you choose to incorporate research into your course(s)? Why might you encourage students to become involved in research experiences?
- What are 1-2 ways that you might incorporate research into your learning activities or assignments?
January HIP Tip: Leverage high impact collaborative assignment elements to improve student learning.
December HIP Tip: Stretch the usefulness of writing with high impact practices.
November HIP Tip: Leverage learning communities to promote shared and integrated learning.
Watch the video below to learn the different characteristics and impacts of learning communities.
November Reflection Questions
- What learning communities have you been a part of in your own life/career? How did these learning communities benefit your learning?
- Which types of learning communities at UA do you already know about? What could you do in your courses to reinforce the benefits of these learning communities for students?
- What might a learning community in your department, major, or minor look like?
- How might engaging in learning communities build upon students first year experiences (such as UNIV101)?
October HIP Tip: Engaging students in first year experiences fosters the development of learning goals and the formation of relationships with instructors and peers.
Watch the video below to learn the benefits of first year experiences and focus in on UNIV101 - a first year experience at UA.
October Reflection Questions
- How can you build on students’ experiences in UNIV101 to help them sustain the learning goals and relationships they form there?
- How might you reinforce students’ use of ePortfolios in your GE course(s) to help them reflect on their learning goals?
- What elements of your course already connect to the cultivation of students’ learning goals and relationships with instructors and peers?
September HIP Tip: Use the GenEd program to identify one way in which HIPs can be structurally integrated into student learning experiences.
In this video, Audrey explains how four HIPs are integrated into the General Education curriculum.
September Tips and Reflection Ideas
- Which HIPs do your courses already include?
- Which course elements, attributes, or categories might align with these HIPs?
- Which HIPs that are not structurally integrated into the GE program might you use in your course(s)? See the August issue for a list of HIPs.
- What actions might you take to ensure that the HIPs in your courses are as high-impact as they can be for student learning?
- Extra HIP tip! Refer to the elements of HIPs from August’s HIP Tips issue for starting points.
August HIP Tip: Categorize HIPs and how they benefit student learning.
Watch this short video for an overview of HIPs and what you can expect for the HIP Tips series.
August Tips and Reflection Ideas
- Solely implementing a HIP does not guarantee that it will be impactful for student learning. See this resource from AAC&U, which lists key elements of HIPs that reinforce their educational benefits.
- Engage in reflective and reflexive pedagogy. As you learn about HIPs, reflect on how they relate to your teaching methods and consider how you might adapt your pedagogy to include HIP(s).
- Start small. If you plan to incorporate a HIP into your course, start with just one. Starting small will help reduce cognitive load for you and your students.