GSW’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), High-Impact Approach to Integrative Learning (HAIL), is a broad initiative to facilitate integrative learning and student social belonging at GSW. We are currently in our second year of implementation.
HAIL has three learning outcomes and three goals that are evaluated on a year-to-year basis. These are:
SLO#1: Students will be able to recognize connections between some combination of the following: general education course work, their major, their co-curricular experiences, experiential learning, and their life goals or experiences.
SLO#2 Students will be able to apply structured reflection principles to reveal insights between their learning and life goals.
SLO#3 Students who complete a HAIL block or station will be able to transfer or synthesize skills and ideas from one academic or professional situation to another so as to engage in complex problem solving.
Goal #1: Provide faculty development opportunities to ensure that majority of faculty can incorporate integrative learning into their teaching.
Goal #2: Increase the opportunities for faculty and staff to collaborate in teaching and learning.
Goal #3: Increase students’ sense of belonging through engagement in co-curricular experiences with integrative components.
SLOs are evaluated using the AACU Value rubric on integrative learning with initial targets around 75% of milestone for the majority of students. (This target was selected when HAIL was initially developed for general education classes). Each goal has its own target and these are being adjusted to be appropriately ambitious.
Goal #1 asked us to have roughly 20% of faculty trained at this time and we are well above that rate. We are looking to train an additional 5% of faculty on a year-to-year basis and have added a new element to this goal—support for the scholarship of teaching and learning. The target for goal #2 is to have at least 12 blocks by the end of the year and 15 HAIL-designated courses. We have over twice as many courses and will likely just hit our goal on blocks this year. Goal #3 is assessed in part by participation in HAIL designated events. Unfortunately, attendance at events varies considerably from year to year and we are currently reevaluating how we may meet this goal.
HAIL has become rapidly established at GSW and appears to be helping students engage in integrative learning in a variety of classes. Per the above discussion of assessment, we’ve added a variety of courses and are slowly expanding our offerings. A majority of faculty have engaged with some form of faculty development, and we are incentivizing additional opportunities.
We need to work on ensuring consistency and a clearly sequenced approach to HAIL that goes beyond general education.
Per our response above, we are working to adjust our targets and goals in an appropriate manner.
We are currently developing HAIL pathways to ensure that students will be able to enroll in program-appropriate block classes while in general education. We’ve found some evidence that these classes help foster a sense of academic belonging and we’ve had logistical challenges getting these working beyond students’ first semester. Students are encountering HAIL classes throughout their time at GSW but we can only provide a limited number of blocks.
A group of roughly 15 faculty members are meeting on a regular basis to engage in scholarship related to HAIL. Faculty have expressed interest in developing a conference on SoTL in general education and the director of HAIL is investigating this possibility.
We’ll need the collaboration of various academic programs to make sure HAIL pathways are successful as well as successful advisor training to make sure these things work.
Continuing to value SoTL research through events like the Teaching and Learning Conference and beyond.
