About HIPs at UGA
Introduction to High-Impact Practices (HIPs) at UGA
High-Impact Practices, also known as HIPs, are a set of teaching and learning activities whose positive impact on students,
particularly those from groups traditionally underserved by higher education, has
been established by educational research.
In 2020, the University System of Georgia (USG) launched “Bringing HIPs to Scale,” a project to increase the number of high impact practice opportunities in all 26
institutions in the system. Because research also shows that underserved students
are the least likely to have access to these high-impact practices, one focus of the
USG project is equity and inclusion.
The UGA team is cataloging courses that use HIPs, tracking enrollment in those courses,
improving student access to courses that use these practices, and creating targeted
messaging to make students aware of the benefits of taking these courses.
While AAC&U has identified 11 practices that have a high impact on student success, UGA is focusing initially on four: First-Year
Odyssey seminars, service-learning, undergraduate research, and writing-intensive
courses. Each of these four practices is course-based, institutionally identifiable
by the FYOS prefix or by the S, R, or W suffix, and approved through a faculty-governed
approval process; visit the suffix page for detailed information about the suffixes. Eventually the UGA plan will extend
beyond these four HIPs, and faculty will be able to ask to have their course/s tagged
in Banner/Athena as a HIP class.
Learn More about HIPs
Interested in learning more about high-impact practices? The USG has compiled an online short course in MomentumU@USG that introduces faculty to HIPs and their key elements. To access this on-demand training, visit https://usgtrain.view.usg.edu/d2l/lp/auth/saml/login.
You may also be interested in the guide, “High Impact Practices: An Educator's Guide,” from the National Association of System Heads (NASH).
Visit the Resources page for more links and materials
How do HIPs Relate to Other UGA Initiatives?
High-impact practices are already embedded into many courses and programs at UGA. For instance, all entering undergraduates take a First-Year Odyssey course. Likewise, service-learning courses (typically listed with an “S” suffix) are available in all of UGA’s schools and colleges, as well as on extended campuses and in study-abroad programs. Writing-intensive (with a “W” suffix) and undergraduate research (“R” suffix) courses likewise reach many students each year. Each of these initiatives has an office focused on the practices and on providing support and professional learning opportunities to enhance their impact.
UGA’s 2022 Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) for reaccreditation is “active learning in the undergraduate classroom.” Many of the HIPs practices and key elements can be characterized as active learning.
At the system level, USG’s partner on the HIPs initiative is LEAP State Georgia (https://leapstategeorgia.wordpress.com/about/), which focuses on the importance of liberal education in fostering “inclusivity, civic connection, and lifelong inquiry.” UGA’s HIPs implementation plan is also linked with the UGA Momentum/“Complete College Georgia (PDF)”