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Just before the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Brian Payne charged �鶹��ý to reimagine its general education curriculum. Formally titled General Education Reform: (Re)Imagining the Future of General Education Together, this initiative has sought to engage the campus community in a comprehensive review and reform process, envisioning and implementing a new program that prepares our graduates for academic, professional, and civic life.��

The first step in this effort focused on communication, education, and outreach. This fall, faculty and staff from across the institution came together to read and discuss different aspects of a general education curriculum, such as why a general education is needed for today’s student, what goals and competencies students should acquire from their general education experience, how students might gain these competencies, and what supports are needed to ensure their success.

The findings from these groups were shared with the university community and reported to an Executive Committee at the end of the semester.

One of these groups focused on reading current literature on high-impact practices (HIPs) to evaluate the extent to which they might be incorporated into the revised general education curriculum. The phrase “high-impact practice,” coined in 2008 by George Kuh, refers to learning practices that promote “achievement of deep learning, significant engagement gains, and positive differential impact on historically underserved student populations” (Kuh, 2008).

Master Lecturer of Biological Sciences Tatyana Lobova, Ph.D., led the group composed of a wide range of faculty and staff from across the university with an interest in both high-impact practices and the general education curriculum. She states, “We are fortunate to have a range of well-developed and highly effective high-impact practices at �鶹��ý, which have been in place for many years. We have gathered data that demonstrates their effectiveness in significantly improving student engagement and performance. Each HIP program is led by knowledgeable, dedicated, and enthusiastic staff who are committed to enhancing students' academic and personal experiences at �鶹��ý.” The HIP reading group members are included at the end of this article.

The specific goals for the HIP reading group were as follows:

• Identify HIPs that might support a reimagined General Education program, including:
  • What they are
  • What learning do they support
  • What needs to be in place for them to be successful
  • What challenges do institutions face with implementation and scale-up.
• Within the �鶹��ý context, identify existing practices that are currently working for our students and suggest what adjustments might be needed to incorporate them into a revised general education curriculum

The group met biweekly over the course of the fall semester to accomplish this task. An initial review of the scholarship highlighted the compelling need for active, experiential learning in higher education.�� As one source put it: “If [students] can find this on YouTube, then why [are they] here?” (McMurtie, 2022). Other publications highlighted both short-term benefits of high-impact practices, including gains in critical thinking, intercultural effectiveness, and socially responsible leadership (Kilgo et al., 2015), as well as long-term benefits such as increased doctoral degree attainment, particularly among historically underserved populations (Foertsch, 2019).

The high impact practices examined and evaluated by the reading group are as follows:

• Capstone Projects
• Entrepreneurial Mindset
• ePortfolios
• First Year Seminars
• Learning Communities
• Service-Learning
• Study Abroad/Study Away
• Undergraduate Research
• Work-Based Learning

In addition to learning about HIPs broadly, the group also spent time learning about HIPs in our own institutional context. This exploration included a presentation from group member Dr. Lanah Stafford, which provided an here at �鶹��ý. “I enjoyed the opportunity to share knowledge and have conversations with members of the �鶹��ý community about what outstanding HIP opportunities already exist at the university and how we can continue to ensure they are a part of the new General Education Reform,” says reading group member Staci Kohen, assistant director for Academic Recovery and Support.

Recommendations

Along with a summary and in-depth analysis of these practices, the HIP reading group was able to provide recommendations to the General Education Reform Executive Committee.

One recommendation is that, in alignment with the scholarship’s recommendation, �鶹��ý embed two high-impact practices in its general education requirements: one in the students’ first year and one potentially in the students’ major. Scaffolding the HIP experience in this way will not only ease the burden on faculty but will also allow for deeper learning gains for students. To embed HIPs into the curriculum, the group recommends significant training and support for faculty, with dedicated resources and personnel for faculty development. Specific recommended actions included: creating a centralized internship hub, further developing sustainable partnerships with community organizations, faculty training in supporting first-year students, standardized documentation of experiences, as well as curricular flexibility across the disciplines.

Significant discussion centered around ensuring that these practices were accessible to all students, with special attention paid to our students at a distance and those who worked while pursuing their bachelor's degrees. To that end, the group strongly recommended offering flexible options such as remote internships and micro-internships (short-term projects), virtual experiences such as collaborative online international learning projects, and both virtual research collaborations and short-term intensive research experiences.

A final recommendation the group made was to leverage the university’s existing expertise on HIPs, such as that of the High Impact Practices (HIP) Council. Led by Stafford, the HIP Council was also cited in the general education External Review Report as an exemplar for working across disciplines to advance high-impact practices and student success. These recommendations were submitted to the Executive Committee on December 20th, 2024. You can read the full report at .
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Moving Forward

One charge of the spring 2025 Steering Committee is to “Develop a formal recommendation for a required first-year experience, experiential learning, or a signature ‘�鶹��ý’ experience as a component of the general education curriculum,” which builds off the work of the Fall 2024 HIP reading group. In collaboration with their working groups organized by area of study, the Steering Committee will review and consider these recommendations and the extent to which faculty participants agree with and can support its recommendations. The Steering Committee will be submitting a draft report with the overall general education reform recommendations for the April 22nd Faculty Senate meeting.

Any questions regarding the general education reform process can be directed to gened@odu.edu

HIPs Gen Ed Reading group membership:

Loretta Alsop, Lecturer, Mathematics & Statistics

Kate Clemons, Lecturer, Communication & Theatre Arts

Michael Dean, Executive Director, Office of Study Abroad

Adaira Howell, Lecturer, School of Dental Hygiene

Vukica Jovanovic, Professor & Chair, Engineering Technology

Staci Kohen, Assistant Director for Academic Recovery and Support

Jeffrey LaCombe, Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Graduate Education, Engineering Technology

Benjamin Melusky, Associate Professor, Political Science and Geography

Josie Momberger, Assistant Director for High Impact Learning Initiatives

Danika Pfeiffer, Assistant Professor, Speech Language Pathology

Lanah Stafford, Director for High Impact Learning Initiatives

Jadwiga Staniszewska-De Mott, Lecturer, Diehn School of Music

Elle Tyson, Assistant Director, ePortfolio and Digital Initiatives

Julie Jo Walters, Lecturer, Biological Sciences

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References

Foertsch, J. (2019). Impacts of Undergraduate Research Programs Focused on Underrepresented Minorities: Twenty Years of Gradual Progress and Practices That Contributed to It. Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research, 3(2), 31-37.

Kilgo, C. A., Sheets, J. K. E., & Pascarella, E. T. (2015). The link between high-impact practices and student learning: Some longitudinal evidence. Higher Education, 69(4), 509–525.

Kuh, G. D., Schneider, C. G., & Association of American Colleges and Universities. (2008). High-impact educational practices: what they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Association of American Colleges and Universities.

McMurtrie, B. (2022). A ’Stunning Level of Student Disconnection: Professors are reporting record numbers of students checked out, stressed out, and unsure of their future. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 68(17).