This WriteBites blog entry features faculty teams working across the College of Agriculture. Each team has been revising courses and curricula to include high impact practices (HIPs) as part of the Office of University Writing’s Faculty Academy for Writing program.
HIPs, according to George Kuh, Ken O’Donnell, and Carole Geary Schneider, are undergraduate experiences that research has shown positively impact student success, student engagement, and student outcomes (Kuh et al., 2017). The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) have identified 11 HIPS:
First-Year Seminars and Experiences
Common Intellectual Experiences (e.g., core curriculum)
Learning Communities
Writing- and Inquiry-Intensive Courses
Collaborative Assignments and Projects
Undergraduate Research
Study Abroad and Global Learning
Service or Community-Based Learning
Internships and Field Experiences
Capstone Courses and Projects
ePortfolios
These practices make such an impact on student learning because they include eight key features of meaningful learning for students:
Writing assignments and activities support high impact practices because writing can be used to help students reflect on their learning experiences, communicate learning to others, and deliver and interpret feedback.
In spring 2019, three faculty teams from the College of Agriculture began the Office of University Writing’s inaugural Faculty Academy on High Impact Practices. Each team focused on one high impact practice and began a two-year process of developing, implementing, and reflecting on curriculum that supports high impact learning.
In this WriteBites chat, we feature representatives from two of those faculty teams. Both examples promote student learning through engagement with course materials and design writing assignments with realistic rhetorical scenarios that are applicable to students’ professional aspirations in their fields.
Team One: Department of Poultry Science, Featuring Emefa Monu
Emefa Monu is an Assistant Professor in Poultry Science. She specializes in Food Science and Technology.
The Poultry Science team (made up of Amit Morey, Ruediger Hauck, and Emefa Monu) wanted to create collaborative learning experiences with real world application across three courses in their program. The team coordinated their efforts to strengthen writing in three courses: Poultry Processing (POUL5110), Poultry Health (POUL5080), and Principles of Food Safety (POUL5160). As students take these courses, they participate in a mock poultry company, Vertically Integrated Poultry Co-Op.
In Monu’s course, POUL5160, students write food safety reports and engage with standard safety procedures as if they were professionals in the industry. They write food safety procedures and protocols for Vertically Integrated Poultry Co-Op, create a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point report, and then draft a research-based report that is rhetorically anchored in students taking on the perspective of a food safety expert. Throughout these assignments, students view professional models and engage in peer review.
Team Two: Animal Sciences, Featuring Grey Parks
Grey Parks is a Lecturer in Animal Sciences specializing in Equine Sciences.
The Animal Sciences Team (made up of Carolyn Huntington, Paul Dyce, Jason Sawyer, and Grey Parks with former member Christy Bratcher) wanted to give students more opportunities to practice written and oral communication. The team’s assignments were designed to align with student learning outcomes and used existing departmental resources, like shared written/oral communication rubrics. The goals were for students to understand how the various written/oral communication assignments they encountered throughout the program were aligned to how they communicate as professionals in animal sciences.
These assignments varied from literature review presentations to informal communications activities like elevator pitches and writing-to-learn activities.
Parks asked her students to complete two low-stakes writing-to-learn activities. The first was a writing assignment that helps first-year students learn how to read and use their textbook. After reading a chapter, students select a learning outcome and review question provided by Parks. Students then explain how their textbook had answered the selected question. The second assignment occurred when students came into class following a reading assignment. Students complete a short communication activity that helped reinforce the content they had just read.
Want to learn more about integrating writing into high impact practices? Register to attend the WriteBites “Revising Writing Assignments for High Impact” panel on January 23rd from 11:30-1:00 in the ePortfolio Studio. Faculty in attendance will learn about writing assignment redesign as well as upcoming professional development opportunities offered by the Office of University Writing. This panel will feature…
Grey Parks from the Department of Animal Sciences
Emefa Monu from the Department of Poultry Science
You can also apply to be a part of the Office of University Writing’s Integrating High Impact Practices Academy. Applications are due February 2nd. More information about them can be found here.
To learn more about high impact practices, see the following resources:
Kuh, G., O'Donnell , K., & Schneider, C.G. (2017). HIPs at Ten, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 49(5), 8-16, DOI: 10.1080/00091383.2017.1366805.
Kuh, G. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. AAC&U, Washington D.C., pp.34.