Published on Dec. 19, 2024

The Office of Community Engaged Learning honored to have been featured this month by SHOW ME MIZZOU for our summer High Impact Practice Summer Institute, a professional development retreat focused on aiding faculty and professors in integrating HIPs into their courses.

From left: Ashlie Lester, Antoinette Landor and Michelle Teti at the High Impact Practices Summer Institute (photo by Joey Yancey)

Below are excerpts of the SHOW ME MIZZOU article. You can find the original and full-length articleHERE.

“The summer institute provided support to faculty seeking to enhance their courses by drafting either a course proposal or a revised course syllabus while in attendance. The organizers hoped 50 faculty would attend, but over a hundred registered. 

During the two-day institute faculty were challenged to reflect on their undergraduate years and think about when they engaged in learning in a format different from the traditional model of receiving information in the classroom. Many recalled transformative experiences of creativity and growth that remain with them now. 

HIPs are referred to as “learning that sticks,” because the term describes experiential and purposeful learning practices. Examples of HIPs include internships, undergraduate research, global learning, service learning, community-based learning, writing-intensive courses and first-year seminars and experiences. 

Research shows that HIPs contribute to improved retention and graduation rates among participating students.HIPs are part of the student success goals of University of Missouri strategic plan. Goal #7 says: Achieve 100% participation rate of graduating seniors in 3+ high impact educational practices (e.g., undergraduate research; study abroad; practicum/experiential learning experiences; internships; leadership development).

Following the summer institute, 30 faculty were selected to participate in an interdisciplinary Community of Practice based on the strength of their proposal and with the support of their academic unit. These “HIPs champions” are developing or adapting a course emphasizing one of four HIPs areas: research intensive, writing intensive, service learning or Freshman Interest Groups (FIGs). An estimated 750 students will be impacted by these 30 courses. 

Kristin Schwain (pictured left), professor of art history in the School of Visual Studies, College of Arts & Science, was glad to see how many of her colleagues at the summer institute were already familiar with high-impact practices and dedicated to improving their teaching and student learning. She was looking forward to the upcoming community of practice meetings.

“When you see people again and again, it creates a community,” Schwain said. “It’s clear that there’s already a community in that there are already people who show up and take advantage of these opportunities. This pilot program formalizes that and creates the chance for more opportunities in the future.”  

Schwain’s course, ARH_VS 2850: Introduction to Visual Culture, which was already writing intensive, introduces students to the problems of understanding, analyzing and writing about art and visual culture. In adapting the course to be research intensive, as well, Schwain will incorporate questions about all the ways research has changed.

She said the most helpful thing about her breakout session at the summer institute was seeing how other faculty are breaking apart the research process and then putting it back together again for students.

Kristin Schwain (photo by Joey Yancey)

The HIPS Community of Practice meets six times throughout academic year at the Teaching for Learning Center to engage in professional development opportunities. Members will continue learning about research-based best practices from colleagues and the alignment of their courses with institutional goals.  Members will measure course satisfaction and engagement in the pilot HIP courses. Additionally, each member’s academic unit will receive a stipend of $1000 per credit hour in operational support during the semester the course is taught. 

Mizzou faculty at the HIPs Community of Practice meeting in September.

McCaulley said that the 30-member group will be divided into smaller groups to share best practices, course learning outcomes, and generate materials to share, such as a syllabus bank to enhance their academic learning objectives, regardless of discipline. This is a way to “scale up” HIPs integration for new faculty to use through materials on Canvas. 

“It’s a way to differentiate ourselves from other institutions,” he said. “It’s a competitive advantage. If you come to Mizzou, you’re not just going to be learning, but you’re going to stretch that learning through these types of practices.”