High-Impact Practices, Universal Design and Assessment Opportunities in Liberal Arts Seminars

This paper explains several teaching strategies derived from the Universal Design for Learning movement and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research in High-Impact Educational Practices, especially the work of George Kuh. Two broad themes unite the successful approaches: creating opportunities for intellectual practice through cycles of feedback and establishing relationships between student and instructors, as well as among student peers, throughout the course of a semester. Furthermore, assignments and learning outcomes are enhanced when expectations are made extremely clear through multiple means, including rubrics and labeling of taxonomies of learning. The author argues that employing these methods creates better learning outcomes for all students, not only those with official accommodations. The author uses practical examples from seminar courses in Asian studies and art history to demonstrate specific ways these strategies can be employed to improve student outcomes over the course of a semester.