The High-Impact Practices (HIPs) described here are educational practices that are correlated with positive student outcomes for all students. Data from the National Survey of Student Engagement show that students who participate in HIPs report deeper learning, greater gains in their personal development, and are generally more satisfied with their entire educational experience.

What makes HIPs so effective? [1]

1. HIPs are sufficiently challenging. They require considerable time and effort on the part of students.
2. Many HIPs create opportunities for extended interaction with peers and faculty on intellectual tasks.
3. Students receive frequent, specific and actionable feedback about their performance.
4. Involvement in HIPs increases the odd that students will interact with others who are different from themselves in a substantive way.
5. Many HIPs provide opportunities for students to connect what they are learning on-campus with the real world.

George Kuh, who has worked with the Association of American Colleges and Universities on the validation of high-impact practices, suggests that every student should participate in at least two high-impact activities during their undergraduate career: one in the first year and one in later years connected to the student’s discipline or major. Kuh suggests that first-year seminars, learning communities, and service learning may provide easy entry for first-year students.

Of course, HIPs exist at MIT, but HIPs can take many different forms. Are we doing them as well as we can? Do all students have access? Are all students participating? These are questions for you to consider as you read through the Overviews describing each HIP and read about how MIT and others institutions approach implementation in the Examples sections.

[1] George D. Kuh, High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter, Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2008, p. 16-17.