One of the biggest concerns that has come to the fore in the field of education recently is whether colleges and higher education institutions offer educational programs that provide their students with the basic skills and competences necessary to meet the requirements of the globalising and rapidly changing world and the accordingly changing labour market. To answer this question, a review investigated the general and practice-based effects of high-impact learning practices (HILPs). In the 56 studies reviewed, HILPs were found to have 18 different positive effects in learning environments:
High Impact Learning practice makes students’ education more meaningful since they prepare students for their future careers. They enhance learning and provide transformative learning, so students are able to connect the knowledge and skills gained throughout a university experience with real life experiences. They also promote student engagement, enhance retention, graduation rates and GPA of students. While they foster motivation of students, they promote higher academic achievements. As students get experienced socially, personally and academically thanks to HILPs, their personal growth, social development and leadership skills enhance. Furthermore, HILPs are positively associated with student and faculty/peer/community interaction which soften cold classroom environments and facilitates positive learning for all students. By participating in diversity experiences and being exposed to different perspectives, students start being tolerant of perspectives different from their own and appreciating for diversity. Moreover, thanks to HILPs, students have an opportunity to deepen their learning to include situations that may encounter in their future careers. This helps students to develop their job-readiness skills. By encouraging collaboration among students, HILPs enable students to both work effectively together and learn from each other’s experiences. In the process of participating in HILPs, students are asked to critically reflect on their high-impact experiences before, during, and after the completion of their projects. Through this personal reflection, students take ownership of their learning, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and make adjustments on their own to get the most out of their experience. In this way, HILPs encourage students to think critically and analytically and enable them to become leaders of their own learning. At the same time, while HILPs develop students’ time management skills, they allow students to become aware of their own skills, abilities and beliefs. (Arikan, S., Dochy, F., Segers, M. 2022).