High Impact Practices

We have added two High Impact assignments to our course. Here are a few examples.

HIP – Writing-Intensive Assignment –

In this course, I am particularly working on students’ written skills which essentially corresponds to “writing-intensive assignment” components of the High Impact Practices. This is aligned with the SLO 4 of the course “Enhance written and oral communication skills.” Specifically, 6 outstanding journal articles on different subjects pertaining to the course topics are selected and students are required to write a summary of that paper in their own words. The summaries will be evaluated by me very carefully and for each submission I give the student feedback and ask them to ensure that they do not make similar mistakes in the next assignment or they apply the best practice I mentioned in the previous assignment feedback. This proved to be an effective way to enhance students’ written skills.

Here is another example of a HIP (Writing-Intensive Courses):

Here are some examples of Intensive-Writing and Collaborative Assignments/Projects HIPs

Crime-Scene Investigation projects. Student will focus on ancient crimes and mysteries and solve these as a team. This fulfils three SLOs: “To examine Greek history through literature, archaeology, art, and through primary and secondary texts,” “To compare and contrast different viewpoints of what happened in ancient Greek history and to come to your own conclusion, based on the available evidence,” and “Improve Problem-solving skills through the Crime Scene Investigation teams.”

Creation of interactive maps showing migration patterns in Greek history. This fulfils three SLOs: “To use digital tools to create scholarship and to investigate Greek history,” “Utilize basic analytic concepts for assembling, organizing, and interpreting historical evidence, and achieve digital literacy in accessing and presenting historical materials,” (PLO), and “Critically analyze Greek history through literature, archaeology, art, and through primary and secondary texts, both in your own work and that of your classmates.”

Creation of a wiki bibliography on Ancient Greece. “To examine Greek history from the Pre-Mycenaean Era through its destruction by the Romans,” “To critically analyze Greek history through literature, archaeology, art, and through primary and secondary texts,” and “To use digital tools to create scholarship and to investigate Greek history.”

A series of Blogs on specific topics, chosen by the students. This fulfils two SLO’s: “Improve Research skills through essay writing and blogs,” and “Critically analyze Greek history through literature, archaeology, art, and through primary and secondary texts.”

A research essay. This fulfils two SLOs: “Improve Research skills through essay writing and blogs,” and “To critically analyze Greek history through literature, archaeology, art, and through primary and secondary texts,” “To think creatively about these issues and to form your own opinions.”

First Draft Workshop. This fulfills one SLO: “Critically analyze Greek history through literature, archaeology, art, and through primary and secondary texts, both in your own work and that of your classmates.”