high-impact practices

Definition

Educational activities like undergraduate research, internships, and capstones shown to improve student outcomes, according to studies that somehow always recommend doing more expensive things. Evidence-based resource drains.

Example Usage

The university's strategic plan emphasizes expanding high-impact practices, despite already overextended faculty and zero additional funding.

Origin

Popularized by the Association of American Colleges and Universities in the 2000s

Fun Fact

High-impact practices genuinely work, but they're called 'high-impact' partly because they're resource-intensive—impact cuts both ways.

Source: AAC&U research and undergraduate education assessment

Related Terms

Advanced

Special Objectivity Bias

The philosophical understanding that objectivity isn't a one-size-fits-all superpower—being rational about quantum mechanics doesn't automatically make you rational about relationships or politics. It's recognizing that each field of knowledge requires its own specialized tools, methods, and humility, and that your PhD in chemistry doesn't make you an expert on everything.

🎓 Education / Academia

Beginner

lecture hall

A large tiered classroom where hundreds of students gather to experience the medieval teaching method of one person talking while everyone else pretends to listen. Modern ones feature uncomfortable seats and terrible acoustics for the authentic alienation experience.

🎓 Education / Academia

Beginner

seminar course

A small, discussion-based class typically for advanced students, where everyone pretends to have done the reading and one or two people carry the conversation. It's the opposite of a lecture, featuring uncomfortable silences and the professor's disappointed gaze when nobody speaks.

🎓 Education / Academia

Beginner

academic dismissal

The institutional equivalent of being fired from being a student, occurring when GPA falls too low for too long despite probationary warnings. The final stop on the academic failure train before expulsion from the university entirely.

🎓 Education / Academia

Beginner

Transcript

An official record of every academic triumph and failure condensed into a single document that costs $15 per copy because your suffering deserves a premium. It's a permanent record that follows you forever, like a yearbook photo but with more Cs.

🎓 Education / Academia

Intermediate

contact hours

The actual time students spend in direct instructional contact with faculty, as opposed to all the other learning they're supposedly doing independently. It's how we justify claiming a 3-credit course represents 9-12 hours of weekly work.

🎓 Education / Academia

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