2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Objectives: There are two approaches to expanding access to high-impact practices for undergraduate STEM students. The first involves scaling up high-impact practices. The vast majority of studies examining HIPs have involved isolated courses and boutique programs with limited reach. The second possibility for expanding access offers depth over breadth. Stacking multiple high-impact practices has been demonstrated to hold potential as a multiplier effect. Where experiencing a single high-impact practice is good, experiencing more than one can be even better. In this study we ask, To what extent does stacking additional high-impact practices on top of course-based PBL provide additional benefits for students?

Methods: Data were collected from 420 alumni of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which stacks project-based learning, first year seminars, global learning, community-based learning, and capstone projects. The survey asked alumni about their experiences with each high-impact practice and how much experiences influenced the development of skills and impacted various aspects of their lives. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to model the extent to which various educational experiences predicts student outcomes. This analytical strategy allows us to compare the relative explanatory power of each block of variables, providing an assessment of their individual, relative, and cumulative value.

Results: After controlling for significant influences of gender and response bias, the course-based projects model explained an additional two to five percent of the variance in developing all four types of skills assessed (teamwork, communication, information use, and cross-cultural skills), content mastery, career preparation, and developing a stronger character. This represents significant increases in explanatory power over that of the control models, establishing that course-based projects confer widespread benefits within the context of this case. Teamwork skills, communications skills, and information use skills were all positively influenced by stacking first year experiences, global experiences, community-based learning, and capstones on top of course-based projects. The development of cross-cultural skills was also significantly strengthened by the quality of a first year experience, the extent learned from the local community, the quality of the community-based project experience, the quality of the capstone experience, and the number of global experiences. After accounting for the influence of response bias and the dosage of course-based projects, content mastery was also significantly increased through two additional high-impact practices: the extent learned from the local community and the quality of the capstone experience. Impacts on long-term outcomes are also discussed in the full paper.

Implications: Experiencing high-impact practices can increase educational outcomes for all students, yet too few students receive sufficient opportunities to receive the full benefits of these educational practices. For institutions of higher education, increasing the types of high-impact practices offered to students can maximize institutional success and improve efficiency. Given prior research that demonstrates the potential for high-impact practices to level the playing field for marginalized students, stacking high-impact practices can also benefit society through broadening the talent pool tackling sustainable development goals.