What is High-Impact Practice

This chapter describes the experiences of a liberal arts college that is part of a large research university implementing e-portfolios with a focus on learning engagement. Using qualitative data collected over time and programmatic experience, the team assesses the depth of engagement their students are experiencing, to determine whether most students are using e-portfolios to engage in learning on their own, or only when prompted to do so by faculty within the confines of a single course. Too few students have taken full ownership of their e-portfolios and engaged with them as a meta-high impact practice. Implications of this finding suggest faculty using e-portfolios need to be intentional about student engagement at the meta-high impact level. Part of achieving this is developing further clarity on what it looks like when e-portfolios are designed to be used as a meta-high impact practice while applying more rigorous methods to determine when students have reached this level of engagement.