Benefits and Challenges of

Integrating High-Impact
Practices into Online
Teaching and Learning
Presenters: Melissa Farrish
Lisa A. Heaton

Conference: EERA Eastern Educational Research Association

Myrtle Beach, SC, February 22, 2019
Background
• What are students learning?
• How will these skills and competencies benefit the
economy when graduates join the workforce?
• Association of American Colleges and Universities
(AAC&U) launched Liberal Education and America’s
Promise (LEAP)
• Through the LEAP initiative, George D. Kuh released
the publication entitled High-Impact Educational
Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them,
and Why They Matter
High-Impact Practices
1. Learning communities
2. Community-based projects or service-learning
opportunities
3. Research opportunities
4. Internship, co-op, field experience, student
teaching, or clinical placement opportunities
5. Study abroad
6. Culminating senior experiences
Problem Statement
Despite the significant literature on
high-impact practices and traditional
programs, there has been little examination
of how high-impact practices can be
successfully incorporated into online
learning programs.

(Reed, 2015; Sandeen, 2012)

Research Design/Instruments
Mixed-Methods, Researcher-Developed Survey/Interviews
Quantitative Qualitative
• Survey Part A • Survey Part C
– Demographics – Open-ended
• Survey Part B
– Two versions
Survey Scales
• Importance - Very Important, Important, Somewhat Important, Not Important
• Integration - Required, Optional, Never

Expert panel review/validation

Population
• Members of ACA institutions
• 35 private four-year liberal arts colleges and
universities
• Located in Kentucky, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Virginia, & West Virginia
Sample
• Survey
– Surveyed - 3,234
– Respondents - 438
– 379 surveys analyzed
– 6.2% margin of error at a 99% confidence level &
4.7% margin of error at a 95% confidence level
Research Question
What are the benefits and challenges experienced
by colleges and universities in the Appalachian
College Association in their attempt to incorporate
high-impact practices into traditional and online
learning classes/programs?
Emergent Themes

Benefits Challenges
• Experiential Learning • Time
• Personal Development • Student Interest
• Marketable Skills • Academic Challenges
• Resources
• Geography
• Communication
Learning Communities
Benefits
• sharing of personal experiences
• encourage camaraderie
• explore topics in greater depth
• increase student confidence
• increase student involvement
• teamwork
• motivate students
• support for one another
• a forum for interaction
• share knowledge
• learn from one another
Challenges
• Ability and inclination of faculty to use online tools
• coordinating online groups is time-consuming
• getting students to engage at a high level
• grading group work
• instructor know-how and desire
• logistics of enrollment
• reluctance to act on team contracts
• social loafing and overachieving often clash
• student disagreements
• students’ expectations of themselves and others are
often misaligned
• students prefer to work alone at their own pace
• technology has conditioned students communications
• uncomfortable with online tools
 Service Learning
Benefits
• apply learning in the real world
• connect digital world to real world
• prepare educators
• provide a transition into learning and
practice
• provide long-term documentation of
ephemeral experience
• show the relevancy of coursework
Challenges
• did the student perform the work
• coordination
• employment obligations
• faculty training and inclination
• financial constraints
• finding academically valuable projects
• geographic constraints
• students perceiving service learning as
busy work
• integration with activity
• lack of student understanding of service
learning component
• more difficult to monitor and assess
remotely
• time commitment
Research with Faculty
Benefits
• apply learning in the real-world
• deeply engages students
• experience in the practice of
professional communication
• gets students invested in their learning
• advantage to students entering
graduate school
• opportunity to work with faculty
• model behaviors and attitudes
• mutually beneficial to students and
faculty
• see the relevancy of their coursework
• useful in post-graduate work and study
Challenges
• ensuring research basics are instilled
• devoting time and attention to
developing opportunities
• faculty time
• integration
• making available ongoing, active
research work in an area that is
appropriate for work with students
• providing enough individual time with
students while they are working on
their research
• student participation
Internships
Benefits
• ability to think about and reflect on a
field experience
• deepens the ongoing experience
allowing growth to take place in real
time
• determines a student’s career path
• integrates the theoretical with the
experiential
• minimizes the lag time for "getting up
to speed” when students enter the
workforce
• job opportunities
• real-world experience
• transition into learning and practice
Challenges
• appropriate supervision
• cost
• difficult for working adults
• establishment of partnerships
• extra work for faculty/time
• integration
• limited number in rural communities
• locations of students and locations of
opportunities may be unmatched
• finding placements
• scheduling clinical rotations around
class and students work or athletic
participation
• student interest
• time with students while they are
completing placements
Study Abroad
Benefits
• best part of the entire program
• transition into learning and
practice
• students gain independence and
perspective in a new
environment while realizing the
commonalities that define
humanity
Challenges
• coordination
• establishing reliable partners abroad
• financing
• geographical distribution of students
• nontraditional students with work
and family obligations
• programmatic time constraints
• reluctance of students and parents
to participate
 Culminating Experience
Benefits Challenges
• experience in the practice of • faculty time
professional communication • instructor know-how and desire
• experience in the field • integration
• transition into learning and
practice
• students learn the relevance of
information, skills, and
perspectives
 Research Question
What, if any, are other strategies that have been
successful in engaging students enrolled in
traditional and online learning classes/programs?
RQ6 – Emergent Themes
• Instructional Strategies
• Technology
• Availability/Care
Strategies
• adding a hybrid • synchronous activities
component • interactive activities
• community-based • project based learning
learning • quizzes
• gamification • unlimited submission of
• discussion forums assignments
• fast grading and • workshop writing in
feedback break-out rooms
• flipped classroom
• group projects/
collaboration
Implications
1. Institutions should focus on what they can do well
2. Not every HIP is a good fit for every student
3. Consider separate list of HIP’s for online students
4. Professional development targeting challenges
Questions?
• Melissa Farrish
– melissafarrish@ucwv.edu
• Lisa A. Heaton
– heaton@marshall.edu
References
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