Make Learning a Magical Experience: Sharing Reflections and Lessons Learned while Teaching an Applied Learning Travel Course

Abstract

This teaching practice session will review and discuss our experience with creating and teaching a multi-disciplinary travel course that incorporated several high impact practices and targeted the features of high-impact practices identified by Kuh and his colleagues as effectively improving student learning (Kuh, et al., 2017). Research demonstrates that applied learning experiences can be a highly effective method of teaching and learning by providing students with valuable hands-on, “real world” experiences. (Kuh, 2008; Kuh, 2013; Schneider, 2015). These learning experiences have been shown to increase academic achievement, retention, and graduation and allow students to acquire life skills that lead to personal and professional success (Kuh, et al., 2017). High impact practices in higher education can include writing and inquiry intensive courses, collaborative assignments and projects, and undergraduate research (Kuh, et al., 2017). Additional features of high impact practices include, among others, opportunity to reflect and integrate learning, interactions with faculty and peers about substantive matters, and opportunities to discover relevance of learning through real-world application (Kuh, 2013). This teaching practice session will discuss how these and other high-impact practices were incorporated into a multi-disciplinary travel course designed to increase student learning, engage students in an applied learning experience, and broaden student understanding of other disciplines and the world in which they live. This session reviews course and curriculum development, the challenges to teaching a high-impact travel course, and lessons learned from our experiences. The session will include a broader discussion with attendees to examine their own experiences with high impact practices and travel courses, to identify future challenges and potential solutions to travel and other courses, and to consider issues regarding curriculum development and the role travel and other high impact courses play in academia. The content of this teaching practice session can be applied more broadly to classes that do not include a travel requirement but that include other high impact practices. References Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why they Matter. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges and Universities. Kuh, G. D. (2013). Taking HIPs to the next level. Ensuring Quality and Taking High-Impact Practices to Scale. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges and Universities. Kuh, G. D., O’Donnell, K., & Schneider, C. G. (2017). HIPs at ten. Change, September/October, 8-16. Schneider, C. G. (2015). The LEAP challenge: Transforming for students, essential for liberal education. Liberal Education, Winter/Spring: 10-18.