Access to high-impact practices in student-athletes: Barriers, supports and best practices

ABSTRACT

Access to and participation in high-impact practices (HIPs) has been shown to have positive benefits for student success. Student-athletes are a cohort that have lower rates of participation across HIPs especially in opportunities that typically occur outside the traditional classroom and where time and scheduling become significant constraints: undergraduate research; global learning; internships; service learning; and learning communities. Faculty athletic representatives, athletic advisors, and department chairs from institutions across one Division I athletic conference were asked about barriers to access and participation to these HIPs for student-athletes as well as strategies their campus have implemented. Across the 5 HIPs, time and season of sport were identified as the main barriers to participation. Several institutions have implemented targeted advising supports to educate and align messaging about these opportunities for student-athletes. The implication is to provide institutions with strategies to improve access and participation to HIPs for student-athlete cohorts in their context.

KEYWORDS:

• Undergraduate research
• global learning
• internships
• service learning
• learning communities
• high-impact practices
• student-athletes
• institutional strategies

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our institutional partners who helped identify participants and disseminate survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Colonial Academic Alliance [grant number 18-013].

Notes on contributors

Cameron Shirley

Cameron Shirley is Dean of Institutional Effectiveness and Innovation at Davidson-Davie Community College in North Carolina. She was a 2020 graduate of the Masters of Higher Education Program at Elon University.

Caroline J. Ketcham

Caroline J. Ketcham is a Professor in the Department of Exercise Science at Elon University in North Carolina.

Eric E. Hall

Eric E. Hall is a Professor in the Department of Exercise Science at Elon University in North Carolina.

James M. DeVita

James M. DeVita is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at University of North Carolina, Wilmington in North Carolina.

Anthony G. Weaver

Anthony G. Weaver is Associate Dean in the School of Communications and Professor in the Department of Sport Management at Elon University in North Carolina.