1. What Does a “High Impact” Course Look Like, Anyway?
-- WORKSHOP --
Washburn University
January 31, 2017
Dan Sarofian-Butin, PhD
Executive Summary: This workshop offers an in-depth and hands-on workshop on the construction and implementation of a “high impact” course. Activities and discussion will support both conceptual models for thinking through such a course as well as concrete strategies for its design. The workshop will be useful for both the revision of existing courses as well as building a course from the ground up. Bring your syllabus, your ideas, and questions..
Agenda
Introduction and Overview
Syllabus & Course Design – overview
Synthesis from educational research
General principles and best practices
Key principles and best practices for HICEP
Syllabus & Course Design – details
Examples of practices
Examples of courses
Building Your Syllabus – Next Steps

2. Some “Housekeeping” & Context…
High Impact Practices
Service-learning
Undergraduate research
Learning communities
Capstone experiences
First-year seminars
Experiential practice that can be embedded within a course
Community Engagement
Civic Engagement
Public Work
Translational Research
Service-learning
Community-based Research
No agreed-upon definition

3. We Know How Learning Works last 100 years of educational research
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
COGNITIVE SCIENCE
LEARNING SCIENCES
DISCIPLINE-BASED EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING & LEARNING
Self-authorship
Backwards design
Project-based learning
Inquiry learning
Deliberate practice
Engaged Learning
e.g., Dewey’s (1938) Experience & Education
Learning- and Task-centered
Merriënboer & Kirschner (2012) Ten Steps to Complex Learning

4. Syllabus construction – general key principles
Articulate your fundamental vision(s) for the course
Differentiate Goals and Objectives
Determine how objectives will be measured
Create course experiences (e.g., readings, labs, field-based practices) that will foster students’ learning of such objectives
Iterative process

5. Syllabus construction – for HICEP courses
HICEP – Key principles for a course
HICEP – Goal definition
RELEVANCE
Academic integrity
RECIPROCITY
Meaningful community voice, impact, and participation
REFLECTION
Experience is never transparent
RESPECT
Avoiding the “community as lab” phenomenon
HICEP – when embedded in a course
As the question
Depth of practice
As critical inquiry
Pedagogical legitimacy
As embedded
Course integrity
As text
academic freedom

6. Syllabus Construction – Service-Learning
CSU-Monterey Bay | see also their comprehensive Faculty Guide to service-learning
American Association of Community Colleges
The service learning “Meta-question” (i.e., what is the over-arching question related to service – justice, diversity, social responsibility and compassion – that the students are to examine?)
Specific service learning outcomes
List of possible community partners
Contact Name; Address; Service activities; Available service times; Directions to site; Other details?
Clear expectations for students work in the community
Minimum hours required?; Parameters for completing the “project”
Integrative assignments
Specific journal questions; Short essay topics; Research papers; Portfolios
How service component will be assessed?
Portion of grade assigned to supervisor evaluation?; Integrative
Description of Service Learning Student Leader role
Frame the experience
The syllabus needs to indicate service-learning early on and often.
Include a definition of service-learning.
Include a discussion of civic responsibility and why life-long learning is important.
Discuss which course objectives students will address through their service work in the community.
State the number of service hours required of each student.
Carefully consider adjusting the workload of students. It is crucial that service work and related assignments are not an add-on to existing course work, but rather, in place of existing course work.
Critical Reflection Assignments
Students should not be given a grade for the service hours performed.
Reflection assignments should be structured.
As with any academic assignment, do not forget the logistics. Include a list of due dates, formatting, and length requirements for each reflection assignment.
Determine the worth and weight of reflection assignments.
Community Partnerships
Set a due date as to when the community partnerships must be formed and students must start working in the community.
Consider partnership agreement forms that the student and a staff member at the community organization both sign and submit to you.
Involve your community partner(s) in the learning process. They are co-educators in a service-learning context.
Educate students (and yourself) as to the realities of the non-profit world. Non-profit personnel tend be overworked and underpaid.
If the instructor selects the community partner(s)
Discuss how the selected partners fit with course content.
Whether there is one community partner organization or several, include contact, scheduling or location information you discussed with the organization.
Tennessee State University
A clear connection between the academic content and the service component.
Stated course objectives – including objectives/outcomes directly related to the service component.
A description of the service requirements - is service an option or is it mandatory, how many hours a week are involved, what is the general nature of the work, the anticipated timeline, etc.?
Specific information about placements - where, how, when?
Clear information about requirements for the reflective process - how often, what format, oral or written, feedback process? 6. A concise description of the evaluation structure - what will be evaluated and how will service-related evaluation be weighted with the rest of the course?

7. Syllabus Construction – Some examples from Campus Compact’s Syllabus Project