HIP Element #1 - Setting and Maintaining High Expectations

Welcome back to our series, “Eight Elements of High Impact Practices,” where we discuss teaching methods that set the stage for high-impact learning experiences. In our first post, we took a high-level look at the types of High Impact Practices (HIPs) and eight elements of quality teaching that imbue them with power. In this post, we’ll offer a few tips to help integrate one of the most foundational elements of HIPs: setting performance expectations at appropriately high levels.

Setting and maintaining appropriately high expectations might seem straight forward, but finding the sweet spot can be tricky. Expectations that are too low can leave students unmotivated and disengaged, while expectations that are too high can overwhelm and discourage them. The goal is to consistently challenge all learners without overwhelming any of them. This, of course, requires more than simply “raising the bar.” Helping your students meet high expectations requires paying close attention to your communication strategy, keeping your learners motivated and supported, and staying in tune with each learner’s needs and progress. Here are some easy-to-implement, practical strategies to help you and your students rise to the challenge.

If students are going to meet your expectations, they need to know what they are. Here are some ways to clearly and consistently communicate what you expect from your students.

TILT (Transparency in Learning and Teaching) is a communications framework designed to make an assignment’s purpose, tasks, and grading criteria as clear and explicit as possible. Check out the TILT Higher Ed Examples and Resources page for more information on the approach or try running one of your existing assignments through our Assignment TILTer GPT to experience the magic.

Rubrics are one of the best ways to communicate your expectations to your students. Describing your grading criteria in detail and providing concrete examples of what high quality work looks like (or doesn’t) reduces ambiguity, helps students organize their efforts, and charts a clear path to success. Rubrics also facilitate consistent, objective feedback, helping students see exactly where they’re doing well and where they might need to improve. We recommend using rubrics in iCollege to help communicate your high expectations and facilitate grading. If you don’t already have rubrics ready to go, try using our Rubric Creator GPT to get started!

Regularly scheduled announcements keep expectations foregrounded and accessible throughout the course. Schedule iCollege Announcements to remind students of upcoming deadlines, make curricular connections, review important topics, and reiterate expectations. Announcements are also a great way to highlight common challenges, offer quick tips for success, and create a consistent structure that supports student planning and engagement.

Whether your expectations are high or low or anywhere in between, please add due dates to grade items in the iCollege Gradebook. This practice connects grade items to the Course Calendar, helping your students plan more effectively and receive timely push notifications through Brightspace’s Pulse mobile app.

Think about the best, most inspiring boss you’ve had. What made you want to work hard for that person? Chances are, your boss was an excellent communicator who made you feel valued, capable, supported, and part of a team working toward worthwhile goals. If you’re going to ask a lot of your students, try to be this kind of leader. Here are some tips to make that happen.

To help your students feel motivated and empowered from the start, put yourself in your students’ shoes and communicate expectations from their perspective. Check out CETLOE’s learner-centered syllabus recommendations or interact with our Learner-Centered Syllabus Designer GPT to get custom recommendations.

Anticipate what support your students might need and do your best to make helpful resources easily accessible. That way, when things get tough, your students will know they’re not on their own. Create a deconstructed syllabus or course information module in iCollege that keeps links to important resources in one, easy-to-find spot. In that module, in addition to resource links, include an ongoing Q&A discussion board where students can post questions to get help from you as well as lean on each other for support. For individual assignments, include links to resources in the assignment descriptions. Finally, schedule a variety of times when students can chat with you online via Webex, Teams, or other means.

In addition to being able to access support resources, to meet high expectations, all learners should be able to access the instructional materials they need. To help make this possible, consider adopting no-cost or low-cost resources. There are lots of ways to find and incorporate these materials.

Your enthusiasm can be contagious and keep motivation high when the work gets tough. Let your excitement show and share what interests you most about the topics you’re exploring. As you do so, help learners draw connections between coursework and their personal lives, communities, potential careers, and future academic work. Given your students’ many and varied backgrounds and interests, it might be helpful to have your students interact with our Why Does This Matter? GPT and share their new insights and reflections via an iCollege Discussion post.

Adopting and maintaining a growth mindset fosters resilience and motivation, helping students view challenges as opportunities to learn rather than barriers to success. When paired with appropriately high expectations, this mindset encourages students to challenge themselves and develop the persistence necessary for academic and personal growth. For more details, check out Katy’s post from Fall 2024.

High expectations don’t have to be one-size-fits-all. Try differentiating your instruction by offering multiple ways to engage with content, accepting different kinds of evidence of learning, and providing additional challenges for advanced students. We know this isn’t always easy. Try discussing your specific needs and challenges with our Pedagogical Problem-Solving Partner GPT

Also, consider offering occasional deadline extensions or dropping low grades. When a single setback has major consequences, students can quickly shift from motivated to hopeless. Rigid policies aren’t the same thing as high expectations. If inflexible late-work or attendance policies are in place to keep you sane in the face of high enrollments or other pressures, consider chatting with one of our experts to explore alternatives.

Continually calibrating your expectations is essential to sustain a challenging yet supportive learning environment. By regularly assessing performance and gathering feedback, you can fine-tune your expectations to align with each learner’s developing capabilities, ensuring that high standards drive growth without overwhelming anyone. Here are a few ways to collect the information you need.

At the beginning of the semester or start of each unit, consider using diagnostic quizzes to identify curricular areas that either don’t need a lot of attention or might pose unanticipated challenges. Publishers often include pre-assessments that can serve this purpose. You can also write your own and then set them up as auto-graded iCollege quizzes to quickly gather insights and analytics. Or, with minimal prompting, generative AI tools are pretty good at creating quizzes. To get started, feel free to try our Create a Diagnostic Quiz GPT.

Breaking down large, complicated work into smaller, manageable tasks (i.e., scaffolding) offers abundant opportunities to incorporate frequent, low-stakes assessments such as short quizzes, draft submissions, or practice exercises. This approach provides students a steady stream of feedback, helping to reduce anxiety, gauge progress, and engage with just-in-time support. (Stay tuned for more information on scaffolding in our next post in this series.)

Providing ways to offer anonymous feedback creates a safe space for students to express concerns, ask questions, and suggest improvements without fear of judgment. Such feedback can help adjust pacing, reinforce a culture of continuous improvement, model a growth mindset, and show respect for your students. One way to do this is to distribute an anonymous survey in iCollege at the end of each unit or module. Since the feedback is anonymous, once you’ve collected submissions, try using our Data Analyzer GPT to extract themes, then share findings and responses via an iCollege announcement.

Setting and maintaining appropriately high expectations is challenging, multifaceted work foundational to high-impact teaching. We hope that the approaches described above help as you engage in this important work. If you have questions or need help implementing these or other strategies, schedule an appointment with a CETLOE expert or join us at one of our many workshops and events on related topics. In the meantime, stay tuned for our next installment in the series, “HIP Element #2 - Investing a Significant Amount of Time and Effort.”