Closing the Loop on High-Impact Practices: Redesigning a Senior Exit Survey

Session Abstract: How do you turn departmental knowledge about High‑Impact Practices (HIPs) into better survey measurement and actionable insights? IR/Assessment and Experiential Education partners share how interviews with academic departments yielded a campus‑specific HIPs taxonomy that directly informed a Senior Exit Survey redesign embedded in the graduation application. We’ll show before/after items, highlight changes in HIP reporting and response patterns (including higher response among HIP‑engaged students), and outline how we returned results to departments through concise one‑pagers, prompts for faculty discussions, and an annual update cadence. You’ll leave with adaptable templates: a HIPs taxonomy starter, item‑writing patterns, an analysis checklist for pre/post comparisons, and a one‑page “closing‑the‑loop” format. Whether you’re tuning a legacy instrument or building one from scratch, this session offers a practical path from conversations → constructs → better data → improvement.

Keywords: High‑Impact Practices, survey redesign, instrument design, response rates, differential response