Learning That Lasts – How High Impact Practices Transform Student Experiences

Documenting the Landscape

J. Elizabeth Clark, Ph.D.

Department of English

Introduction
LaGuardia’s History of HIPs
Where are HIPS Happening Now at LaGuardia?
HIPS Matter for Faculty
A Surprising Finding: HIPs are Cumulative and Connected
HIPs Can Be Challenging
What We Share: HIPS at LaGuardia
Making HIPs Stronger: What Faculty Recommend
The Road Ahead: Faculty-Led, Student-Centered Transformation

Introduction

This project is an effort to map where High Impact Practices (HIPs) are currently happening at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, how they’re being implemented, and where they’re strongest. More than that, it aims to document the pedagogy, equity commitments, and collaborative spirit that drive this work.

The collection includes:

A campus-wide survey conducted in Fall of 2024
15 written case studies
- 12 based on in-depth faculty interviews
- 3 self-authored by faculty reflecting on their own HIPs work
2 podcast episodes exploring conversations about teaching and learning
- The podcasts are accompanied by written case studies, so you can choose to listen to the audio (which I recommend) and / or read the case study.
7 video interviews that spotlight personal faculty narratives and classroom strategies
- 1 video interview is accompanied by a written case study.

Faculty and staff featured in the inaugural stage of this project include: Caterina Almendral, Pablo Avila, Tameka Battle, Jessica Boehman, Clarence Chan, J. Elizabeth Clark, Milena Cuéllar, Michele de Goeas-Malone, Jasmine Edwards, Nicolle Fernandes, Andrea Francis, Leigh Garrison Fletcher, Richa Gupta, Tonya Hendrix, Eric Hofmann, Reem Jaafar, Jill Kehoe, Regina Lehman, Ellen Quish, Preethi Radhakrishnan, Cory Rowe, Naomi Stubbs, and Anja Vojvodic.

These HIPs stories highlight the creativity, challenges, and transformative power of high impact practices. The conversations unfolded in all kinds of settings: over coffee, over Zoom, in our makeshift studio in B-216, and on camera. Faculty shared their joys and frustrations, their proudest moments, and their hopes for our students. HIPs served as the thread connecting these stories, but they also revealed something deeper: how and why LaGuardia faculty continue to meet students where they are, bringing the best of pedagogical innovation into our classrooms.

What I hope comes through in these interviews is LaGuardia’s long history with HIPs, and the joy, care, and commitment our faculty bring to shaping each student’s journey. I also hope this will bring renewed energy for considering the role of HIPs on campus and understanding how they can be a transformational practice, when intentionally situated in the curriculum.

If you’re eager to dive straight into the good stuff, the HIPs stories from LaGuardia faculty, you’ll find a green navigation bar at the top of the page. Theme-based icons at the bottom are a second avenue for navigation. Both the header and footer navigation organize case studies by the major HIP practice areas identified by our faculty. On both this page and the “All Interviews” page, you’ll also find a tag cloud which provides the opportunity to look at case studies by keyword.

If you’re curious about how these stories connect, how they speak to one another, and what themes emerge across the case studies, read on for a deeper analysis of the patterns and insights that tie them together.

LaGuardia’s History of HIPs

George Kuh’s influential 2008 report, High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter, has become a guiding framework for colleges across the country. At its core, the conversation about HIPs is really a conversation about how we best serve our students. What are they learning? How do we know? And how do we make sure that learning sticks with them, not just for a semester, but well beyond the classroom? It also pushes us to think holistically about education: not course by course, but over time. What does a LaGuardia education mean, specifically? What are the hallmarks of how we educate students as a college community and as an institution?

Kuh’s original list of 10 HIPs included First-Year Seminars and Experiences; Common Intellectual Experiences; Learning Communities; Writing-Intensive Courses; Collaborative Assignments and Projects; Undergraduate Research; Diversity and Global Learning; Service Learning and Community-Based Learning; Internships; and Capstone Courses and Projects. For long-time members of the LaGuardia community, these will sound familiar, as we’ve been doing many of them for years.

In 2016, a new HIP was added to the list: ePortfolio. LaGuardia played a key role in that. Our work with ePortfolio provided evidence that helped elevate it to the status of a high impact practice, both in terms of measurable outcomes and transformative learning experiences.

But long before Kuh, LaGuardia pioneered many of the practices we now know as HIPs. Terry Golway’s LaGuardia Works: The First Twenty-Five Years documents our long-standing culture of educational innovation. Before Learning Communities had a name, we had TAR, “Teaching Application Reinforcement,” an early version of linked courses. Pairs and Super Clusters came next. We even had a “Satellite” college focused on interdisciplinary collaboration. And from the beginning, our identity as a Cooperative Education College meant connecting classroom learning with real-world work experience. In 2002, we were also one of the first 50 colleges nationwide to launch an ePortfolio initiative. And our work with the First-Year Seminar, now over a decade strong, has been recognized as a national model for first-year success.

Innovation has always been part of who we are, grounded in a belief that better teaching practices lead to better student outcomes.

But LaGuardia, like the rest of higher education, is not the same campus it was even a few years ago. The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the way we teach, the way we connect, and the way students engage with their education. Some of our HIPs work gave way to the exigencies of the moment. Emergency online teaching was hard. HIPs are hard work, even on a good day. So, some of our carefully scaffolded practices, some of our best intentional pedagogical work was challenged by the demands of the pandemic.

Where Are HIPs Happening Now at LaGuardia?

In Fall 2024, Pablo Avila and I conducted a survey about HIPs at LaGuardia to determine where we are now as a campus with our use of HIPs. Although sample size was small, respondents reported long-term engagement with HIPs. A significant number have used HIPs throughout their careers, noting that they have used HIPs for 10–20+ years. This longevity shows deep institutional experience with HIPs across disciplines.

The most used HIPs were: First-Year Seminar (FYS), ePortfolio, Learning Communities, Internships, Writing-intensive courses, and Collaborative assignments.

This intersected with the interviews I conducted this spring. First-Year Experience, Learning Communities, and ePortfolio were the most often cited HIPs in those interviews.

HIPs are happening in two ways at the college: in individual courses and scaffolded through the curriculum as part of a larger curricular structure in a particular major or program. HIPs have a large presence in our curriculum. But they are not as robust or ubiquitous as they were previously.

This project taps into the spaces where HIPs are happening and asks how do HIPs evolve to meet the moment we’re in? How do we carry forward our legacy of innovation in a way that speaks to the realities of today’s students and faculty?

HIPs Matter for Faculty

George Kuh’s work centers students: how they learn, how they stay connected to their institutions, how they grow, and what helps them succeed.

This project takes a parallel approach but shifts the focus to faculty. Using Kuh’s categories and definitions, I wanted to know: How and why do LaGuardia faculty value HIPs? What motivates them to do this work? What motivates them to continue that work? How do they address the challenges of teaching with HIPs?

Faculty often describe HIPs as a return to the heart of why they teach. These practices allow them to align their courses with core values like equity, student-centered learning, real-world application, and transformative growth. For many, this work isn’t “extra,” it’s essential.

Teaching with HIPs is rarely a solo effort. Most faculty were introduced to HIPs through CTL workshops, learning communities, or team-teaching experiences. The work itself often includes co-designed assignments and curriculum mapping. That spirit of collaboration builds a strong sense of community and makes the intellectual work of teaching more rewarding.

HIPs also invite faculty into reflection. Just as students are asked to think deeply about what and how they’re learning, faculty find themselves revisiting their own roles and practices. They describe taking more risks, trying new approaches, and viewing teaching as a dynamic, evolving process. For many, this reflection brings a sense of renewal.

There’s also a spirit of experimentation that runs through much of this work. HIPs give faculty permission to try something different, whether it’s a digital assignment, a cross-disciplinary project, or a community-based collaboration. This creative flexibility is often cited as one of the most exciting parts of HIPs work.

Faculty also talk about the power of seeing student learning in action. Watching a student reflect, present, or showcase their work makes growth visible, and personal. Faculty describe moments where they see confidence build, connections click, and transformation take place. It’s these moments, many say, that affirm their teaching.

HIPs also shift how faculty see their roles in the broader curriculum. Rather than just teaching a course, many describe shaping entire programs, redesigning assignments, aligning assessments, and guiding students across multiple semesters. HIPs position faculty as educational leaders.

Across departments and disciplines, faculty describe HIPs as energizing and meaningful. It’s clear from these case studies that HIPs aren’t just for students, they’re a vital part of teaching, and they matter deeply for faculty, too.

HIPs give teaching a sense of purpose
HIPs build community
HIPs ask faculty to reflect
HIPs create space for faculty growth and innovation
HIPs make learning visible
HIPs encourage ownership and leadership

A Surprising Finding: HIPs are Cumulative and Connected

One of the most surprising and exciting findings to emerge from these conversations was this: faculty who start with a single HIP often don’t stop there. Instead, they begin to connect HIPs across courses, programs, and semesters, creating deeper, more cohesive learning experiences for students. What started as a single strategy becomes something more: a framework for holistic, transformative teaching. Sometimes called Meta-HIPs in the literature, Milena Cuéllar has coined it a “Super HIP,” when we join multiple HIPs together. Just as we scaffold learning for students, HIPs seem to scaffold themselves for faculty. They build on each other in ways that are powerful, generative, and deeply connected.

Faculty describe how HIPs reinforce and deepen each other. Take the First-Year Seminar and ePortfolio, for example. Together, they help students begin reflective work early and build a foundation they can return to throughout their time at LaGuardia. Students who start with ePortfolio in FYS often show up in capstones, internships, or presentations with a strong sense of who they are and where they’re going. Similarly, pairing Learning Communities with writing- or research-intensive assignments helps students transfer knowledge across contexts, see interdisciplinary connections, and build confidence.

This layering of HIPs also plays a powerful role in identity formation. When students take part in multiple HIPs, like internships, ePortfolio, and structured reflection, they begin to see themselves not just as students completing tasks, but as scholars, professionals, and future contributors to their fields. Faculty often frame ePortfolio as the place where this identity work lives: a space for students to document, reflect, and take ownership of who they are becoming.

Rather than treating HIPs as separate or isolated practices, many faculty describe them as structurally interwoven. Some see ePortfolio as the center that connects everything else: internships, collaborative projects, undergraduate research, into a cohesive whole. Clarence Chan offered this metaphor, “It’s a wheel. ePortfolio is the center, and the spokes are all the other HIPs.”

This kind of integration doesn’t happen by accident, it takes collaboration and planning. Wherever faculty have intentionally connected HIPs, there’s often interdisciplinary work happening behind the scenes. STEM and English faculty team up to design assignments around climate change or infectious disease. Education and Health Sciences programs coordinate reflections across courses. And CTL seminars help spark the collective curriculum redesign needed to make HIPs feel like a unified experience instead of a fragmented one.

The payoff? More durable learning outcomes, learning that lasts. Faculty who use multiple HIPs say they see stronger student persistence, deeper confidence, and higher levels of engagement. Students who reflect, present, and connect their work across classes are often better prepared to transfer, to enter the workforce, and to speak clearly about their learning.

That said, faculty are also candid about the setbacks. Several noted that the pandemic disrupted many of the connective threads between HIPs. But now, there’s a renewed push to rebuild those connections, and rethink them in more intentional ways. This moment is a recovery and an opportunity to reimagine how HIPs can work together across a student’s entire educational journey.

When HIPs are layered thoughtfully and collaboratively, they create richer, more durable, and more transformative learning experiences. One HIP often leads to another, and the result is far greater than the sum of its parts.

HIPs Can Be Challenging

These case studies highlight just how much care, energy, and persistence LaGuardia faculty bring to their HIPs. There’s joy in the work, and a deep belief in its value. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Teaching with HIPs can be demanding, and faculty are honest about the hurdles they face.

Time is one of the biggest challenges. Faculty want to do the kind of teaching that HIPs ask for, offering meaningful feedback, designing experiential assignments, and building real relationships, but it’s hard to do that in a packed schedule or a large class. The intention is there, but the hours in the day often aren’t.

Many also spoke about the need for stronger support. Doing HIPs well takes more than goodwill, it takes institutional investment. Faculty need things like reassigned time, support from department leadership, and opportunities for professional learning. Without those structures, even the most committed instructors can feel like they’re doing it all on their own.

There’s also the issue of infrastructure. Faculty described moments when they had great ideas, a community-based project, a digital portfolio assignment,or a student presentation event, but ran into logistical barriers. Maybe there wasn’t funding, or the tech wasn’t available, or they simply couldn’t find a space to make it happen. Even successful programs can struggle without the systems in place to keep them going.

Another important theme was the mismatch between HIPs and some students’ lived realities. Many LaGuardia students are balancing school with full-time work, caregiving, or long commutes. That can make it hard to participate fully in time-intensive or out-of-class activities. Faculty worry that without built-in flexibility, HIPs might leave some students behind, when they’re meant to pull everyone in.

This is why an equity-minded approach matters so much. Faculty emphasized that HIPs need to account for the diversity of student experiences, especially for first-generation, multilingual, and non-traditional students. That might mean designing more hybrid or asynchronous options, or rethinking how collaboration and reflection happen in different contexts.

Finally, faculty want to see HIPs embraced not just by individual instructors, but by the institution as a whole. Over and over, they expressed a desire for deeper, more visible commitment from the college: clearer messaging, shared expectations, and more coordinated support. Faculty are doing the work. But to make HIPs truly sustainable, they need to know the college is doing the work, too.

Challenges in Implementing HIPs:

HIPs take time faculty don’t always have
HIPs require support that’s not always there
HIPs often outpace the infrastructure
HIPs don’t always fit students’ lives
HIPs require equity-minded design
HIPs need institutional commitment to thrive

Not surprisingly, faculty at LaGuardia bring a wide range of styles, disciplinary approaches, and classroom strategies to their HIPs. Across all the differences, some strong common threads emerge. There’s a shared language and a shared sense of purpose. No matter what department the faculty member comes from, there’s a collective belief in the transformative power of HIPs that extends beyond disciplinary boundaries.

At the core of this work is a deep commitment to student-centered teaching. Faculty use HIPs to support who their students are, what they bring with them, and how they learn best. Whether through reflective assignments, real-world experiences, or collaborative projects, HIPs are used to build confidence, amplify student voices, and help students take ownership of their own learning journey.

Reflection comes up again and again. Faculty describe it as essential, not just for students, but for the learning process itself. Written reflections, classroom discussions, and digital tools like ePortfolio are used to help students make connections between their coursework, their personal growth, and their future goals. Across disciplines, reflection is where the learning goes deeper.

There’s also a strong emphasis on scaffolding. Faculty rarely design HIPs as one-time assignments. Instead, they build learning step-by-step, especially for complex work like research papers, presentations, or capstones. Many describe a journey that begins in the First-Year Seminar and continues through upper-level courses, giving students a chance to develop and revisit their skills over time.

Historically, faculty development has played a major role in this work. Many participants pointed to CTL seminars, interdisciplinary workshops, and team collaborations as turning points in their teaching practice. These professional learning experiences helped faculty rethink how they design assignments, how they support students, and how they see themselves as educators. Many expressed a desire to return to these opportunities, especially spaces where they could work across disciplines and share ideas.

HIPs also often reshape how faculty think about their own roles. Several described moving from being content experts to becoming facilitators, mentors, and co-learners. The work is still rigorous, but the focus shifts, toward creating spaces where students can grow, and where faculty grow alongside them.

Collaboration is a major part of what makes HIPs work. Many faculty are involved in Learning Communities, interdisciplinary teaching partnerships, or shared assignments that span courses and departments. They spoke of how these collaborations make their teaching more dynamic, and how working alongside colleagues can be just as energizing as working with students.

Equity is also front and center. Faculty repeatedly emphasized how HIPs help support first-generation, multilingual, and underrepresented students. These practices are seen as tools for inclusion, affirmation, and access, ways to level the playing field and build a sense of belonging. At the same time, there’s recognition that while the vision is shared, the implementation isn’t always consistent. There’s still work to do to ensure HIPs reach every student in meaningful ways.

Technology plays a strong supporting role. While comfort with digital tools varies, faculty across the board use platforms like ePortfolio to support reflective learning, multimodal projects, and creative expression. Video presentations, digital storytelling, and collaborative online assignments are just a few of the ways tech is used to enhance learning.

Assessment, too, is approached as more than just grading. Faculty use signature assignments, rubrics, and benchmark assessments to understand how students are growing. Assessment is treated as a feedback loop, a way to adapt instruction and celebrate learning, not just check a box.

Finally, faculty see the long-term impact of HIPs. They talk about students who find their voice, who develop a professional identity, who persist when things get hard. They see growth not just in the moment, but across semesters. For many faculty, these are the moments that make the work feel deeply meaningful, the ones that remind them why they teach.

What we share:

Student-centered teaching is at the heart of LaGuardia’s classrooms
Reflection runs through everything
Scaffolding and iteration matter
Faculty learn through HIPs, too
HIPs reshape faculty identity
Collaboration is central
Equity is a guiding principle
Technology enhances learning
Assessment is part of the learning process
HIPs leave a lasting impact

Making HIPs Stronger: What Faculty Recommend

Faculty put in the time, the creativity, and the care to make HIPs work, and they want to see these practices thrive. For HIPs to be truly sustainable, institutional support needs to grow alongside faculty innovation. Faculty shared thoughtful, specific ideas for how to make HIPs more impactful, more equitable, and more accessible across the college.

A clear theme was the need for infrastructure that actually supports the scope of HIPs. Faculty talked about the importance of having the right materials in place, from funding for experiential learning and research to resources like student mentors and classroom assistants. Without that kind of scaffolding, it’s hard to scale or sustain even the most promising initiatives.

There was also a strong call for more practical support. Faculty asked for tools that could help lighten the load: things like sample assignments, assessment templates, and targeted professional development. Especially for those new to HIPs or new to teaching, these kinds of resources can make a big difference in day-to-day planning and execution.

Two LaGuardia-specific practices came up often: Learning Communities and ePortfolio. Faculty praised their potential but also noted the need for renewed investment. That might include better scheduling support or more consistent integration into program curricula. Many see these as signature practices that could do even more with the right attention.

Communication with students also emerged as a major opportunity. Faculty want students to understand why a class is designed a certain way, and how that structure supports their learning and growth. Some suggested making HIPs part of orientation and advising conversations, giving students a clearer picture from the start so they can engage more fully and confidently.

Faculty also voiced a strong desire to connect with one another. Many said they’d benefit from dedicated spaces to share strategies, troubleshoot challenges, and build interdisciplinary partnerships. Whether through the CTL, department-based efforts, or cross-campus initiatives, these kinds of communities of practice can reduce burnout and deepen the collective impact of HIPs.

Finally, there was a shared sense that HIPs need to be embraced at the institutional level. Faculty are doing the work in their classrooms, but they want to see HIPs supported across programs and departments. That includes shared language, aligned assessments, and leadership that prioritizes and invests in this kind of teaching. Faculty don’t want HIPs to be isolated efforts; they want them to be a core part of what LaGuardia is known for.

Faculty Recommendations:

Invest in the infrastructure that makes HIPs work
Offer more logistical and pedagogical support
Strengthen signature practices like Learning Communities and ePortfolio
Improve communication with students about HIPs
Build faculty communities of practice
Make HIPs a campus-wide commitment

The Road Ahead: Faculty-Led, Student-Centered Transformation

The stories gathered in this project reflect LaGuardia’s deep and collective investment in high-impact, student-centered education. Faculty aren’t just implementing HIPs, they’re reimagining them in this moment with intention, equity, and creativity.

What emerges here isn’t one fixed model of what HIPs look like at LaGuardia. Instead, it’s a constellation of practices, values, and challenges. Faculty are using HIPs in diverse ways, shaped by their disciplines, course goals, and student needs. And yet, certain commitments echo throughout: reflection, equity, and student-centered design are at the heart of this work.

This project doesn’t try to paint a perfect picture. Instead, it offers a grounded snapshot of where we are now: what’s working, what’s hard, and what it would take for this work to deepen and grow.

And I have to say: it’s hard to capture just how joyful and energizing these conversations were. LaGuardia has always been a visionary place. There’s a little bit of magic in what we do here. We take the best ideas in education and push them further, not because it’s easy, but because our students deserve nothing less.

So I hope you meet these case studies with the same wonder, curiosity, and inspiration that shaped them.

To me, each one is a uniquely LaGuardia story: a faculty member with a vision for how education can meet this moment and meet our students where they start, or continue, their educational journey. What happens along the way is a deep and transformational learning that lasts. Alone, these stories might feel like bright spots in isolation. But together, they become something more, a shared space of hope, possibility, and community.

Because this is how we think about a LaGuardia education. And this is how we think about a LaGuardia community.

If you feel inspired by what you read here, reach out. We’d love to add your voice to the conversation.

HIPS at LaGuardia