About this Publication
The IMPACT profiles are a medium through which faculty can chronicle their respective course transformation processes and outcomes. As such, IMPACT profiles provide teaching faculty from varying fields of study, as well as faculty developers, insight into teaching and learning challenges faculty face in teaching foundational courses and specific reflective processes and course redesign efforts to enhance students’ learning. The general premise behind the profiles is that scholarly teaching emerges from faculty reflective processes related to combining teaching and learning theories with empirical research on teaching practices, specifically connected to student learning outcomes; which is to say that scholarly teaching is informed by research-based and experience-based knowledge.
The IMPACT Profiles Directory, then, is a collective of faculty profiles that facilitates readers’ ability to identify effective practices in course transformation processes and college teaching. Furthermore, the IMPACT Profiles Directory is designed to enhance faculty’s scholarship of teaching and learning in that it creates case studies of field specific course transformation processes and outcomes that can become the basis for conference presentations and future scholarly articles, making teaching practices public and peer reviewable.
Purdue Academic Course Transformation
The mission of the IMPACT program is to improve student competency and confidence through redesign of foundational courses by using research findings on sound student-centered teaching and learning. IMPACT's team of instructional, technology, and library specialists work with Purdue professors to transform traditional lecture-based foundational courses into student-centered active learning environments. IMPACT Profiles serve as a record of this transformative process and the impact and implementation of redesigned courses.
What can an IMPACT Profile be used for?
At an individual level, the Profile can be used as the basis for future publications and presentations on teaching and learning in a given field. It is a stepping stone for the involved faculty and IMPACT team to engage in scholarship about teaching and learning.
At an institutional level, the Profile database allows stakeholders to have immediate access to data about the effectiveness of course transformations at Purdue. Profiles can be used to inform the development of future class design efforts, and help identify the types of tools, infrastructure, and assessments that are most effective in any field.
These case studies completed at Purdue can also lay the groundwork for global collaboration. The Profiles contribute to a broader conversation about teaching and learning, and encourage faculty to share not just their research, but also their insights into how they can best teach students the foundations of their fields.