November 16, 2020How We Describe Immersive Learning Experiencesby Phillip MotleyInterviewing teaching faculty about the pedagogies they use in their courses has been one of my primary methods of collecting data for my exploration of immersive learning practices in higher education. With each interview, I learn more about the range…
November 12, 2020Undergraduate Research: Ensuring a High-Impact and Resilient Experience for Allby Helen Walkington, Elizabeth Ackley, Jenny Olin Shanahan, Kearsley Stewart, and Eric E. Hall In this retrospective, we review two seminal papers on undergraduate research (UR) written by David Lopatto (Lopatto 2003; 2010) and discuss the importance of these articles with regard to demonstrating the benefits of UR and the qualities that make it…
October 30, 2020Making College “Worth It”by Sophia Abbot and Lucia-Maribel CraigeAlthough day-to-day life for college students is far from normal, right now, faculty and staff can continue to help the class of 2024 pursue a journey of self-discovery. How can students make the most of their experience? Educational scholars George…
October 27, 2020Is College Worth It? Alumni Say High-Impact Experiences Make College Worthwhileby Jessie L. Moore, Peter Felten, Jason Husser, and Kaye UsryWhat is the value of an undergraduate education? Scholars, politicians, and families have debated that question for decades. Research consistently demonstrates the economic payoff of earning a degree, but is that enough to make college “worth it” for students? In…
October 13, 2020Do Cohesive Groups Matter?by David BuckIn previous posts (here and here), I’ve been writing about the different ways that groups can be created for class projects, and whether the method of group assignment has an impact on learning. In this post, I want to focus on one…
September 30, 2020New Scholarship on Writing Beyond the University: Writers’ Complex Experiencesby Julia BleakneyNew studies seek to update the field of Writing Studies’ understanding of writing beyond the university by explaining how writers enter into and navigate these spheres, writers’ complex roles in non-curricular writing contexts, or the kinds of writing they conduct….
August 12, 2020What Makes Workplace Writing Meaningful?by Julia BleakneyWhat factors related to college writing make it meaningful to students? Are these the same factors that make workplace writing meaningful to alumni? The meaningfulness of college writing is an important concept for educators and administrators. In their analysis of…
July 30, 2020Collaborative Projects and Assignmentsby David BuckThe high-impact educational practice (HIP) that I’m studying and writing about for the next two years is “collaborative projects and assignments.” Part of the reason that I selected this topic was because it was one of the only HIPs out…
July 17, 2020Lessons Learned from Mentoring Undergraduate Research this Summerby Eric E. Hall, Elizabeth Bailey, Simon Higgins, Takudzwa Madzima, Svetlana Nepocatych, Matthew W. Wittstein, and Caroline J. KetchamSalient Practices of Undergraduate Research Mentoring This past March, as universities were transitioning to distance learning, in addition to figuring out how to teach our classes remotely, many of us had to consider how to continue to support our undergraduate…
July 6, 2020What even is a HIP?by David Buck(Understanding HIPs through a Theoretical Model – Part 2) In my previous post, I started deconstructing the idea of high impact practices (HIPs), with the goal of articulating a definition that would be useful to researchers and teachers. To do…