High Impact Practices utilized in this project:

Collaborative Assignments and Projects

Collaborative learning combines two key goals: learning to work and solve problems in the company of others, and sharpening one’s own understanding by listening seriously to the insights of others, especially those with different backgrounds and life experiences. Approaches range from study groups within a course, to team-based assignments and writing, to cooperative projects and research.

Undergraduate Research

Many colleges and universities now provide research experiences for students in all disciplines. Undergraduate research, however, is most prominently in science. With strong support from NSF, scientists are reshaping courses to connect key concepts and questions with students’ early and active involvement in systematic investigation. The goal is to involve students with actively contested questions, empirical observation, technologies, and the sense of excitement that comes from working to answer questions.

Capstone Courses and Projects

Whether called “senior capstones” or some other name, these culminating experiences require students nearing the end of their college years to create a project of some sort that integrates and applies what they’ve learned. Capstones are offered both in departmental programs and, increasingly, in general education as well.

High-Impact Educational Practices Excerpt from High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter, by George D. Kuh (AAC&U, 2008)

While all students are required to create and submit a portfolio for graduation through the portfolio class, student could additionally choose to work on the graphic design graduation exhibition catalog for their capstone project. Participating designers were required to write a proposal for an Office of Undergraduate Research grant; to design every graduating graphic designer into the catalog equally; to adhere to the graphic standards established as part of the class’s collaborative identity design project and the university’s brand guidelines; and to work with the professional printers from start through proofing process to finish. Some examples of the results are below: