According to the Association of American Colleges and Universities, active learning is an essential part of a modern college education. High Impact Practices (HIPs) use collaborative and active learning strategies to improve student engagements and outcomes. White (2018) explained that while HIPs can positively impact student success, budgetary restraints can present challenges to implementation. Therefore, faculty are finding ways to create active learning experiences without a high cost to institutions.
Cross-disciplinary collaboration presents an opportunity to use HIPs to engage students in the core curriculum. In my case, the First-Year Writing (FYW) classroom offers a unique setting to use HIPs to build on how writing creates common spaces not only in FYW, but also expands those spaces into discipline-specific areas, such as nursing. Cross-disciplinary collaboration through FYW not only provides students with an early look at their majors but also teaches them how to decompartmentalize the writing skills they learn in FYW and apply them to a broader experience.
This article will focus on one such collaboration between English (English 1101) and Nursing and the impact of cross-disciplinary activities and HIPs on students in a discipline-specific FYW course.
Importance of Collaboration
Collaborative projects can provide students with deeper learning experiences and opportunities for increasing communication (written and oral) skills both inside the classroom and within the community (White, 2018; Bresciani, 2015). The FYW classroom provides a unique setting to build on momentum in cases where students are unable to have an early introduction to their major. FYW challenges students to understand the connection of strong writing to their majors, especially if the material in the course correlates to relevant subject matter in the major. The goal in creating this cost-effective nursing-specific English 1101 was to ask students to think specifically about how writing relates to a more universal experience (medical professions) in order to express the importance of humanities beyond the composition classroom.
Collaboration, particularly in course design and implementation, can often seem like a heavy lift. In some cases, faculty can be protective of course material and design, and in others, challenges exist in finding partnerships outside of specific disciplinary departments. In the following, I hope to show how this type of critical work can happen organically and effectively while bringing satisfaction and appreciation not only to students but to the faculty involved.
Process of Implementation
Over the course of a semester and over the summer, I worked with a nursing faculty member to refine the necessary concepts for bringing the course into the classroom. I started with the basic course learning outcomes for our institution’s English 1101.
From there, I and my nursing faculty partner, explored what concepts would be important for students interested in the nursing program to learn early in their academic careers. I began with highlighting the connection between the humanities and health care through learning about and constructing a medical narrative where students had to articulate their interest in pursuing a nursing career. Then, I focused on the importance of communication in relaying critical information through instructions by creating a process project, which included a demonstration (by my nursing partner) of a Foley catheter insertion using a medical mannequin, followed by a hands-on opportunity for students to practice this foundational healthcare procedure. Finally, I had students hone their research skills by exploring relevant and current healthcare-related issues and presenting them in a multimedia assignment. Instead of MLA, as is common in most humanities courses, students used APA formatting and citations throughout the course to better prepare them for the nursing program.
Please scan the QR code below for copies of the assignments.
Lessons Learned and Advice
Engagement
Students were more motivated to engage with assignments. They appreciated exposure to nursing concepts early in their academic careers and enjoyed forming an early relationship with a nursing faculty member. The course sparked their intellectual curiosity and got them thinking about the deeper issues within their major and future profession. When learning is decompartmentalized, students can see connection between academic and life experiences. Potential nursing students expressed excitement for discipline-specific core classes and, sometimes, students realized that the hands-on activities showed them that nursing was not their best fit, well before they spent years working towards acceptance into the nursing program.
Collaboration
Collaboration opportunities don’t have to be complicated, expensive, or overly time-consuming. Simple conversations and activities can be cost-effective while academically sound and engaging. Partnerships can happen in surprising situations. The nursing English 1101 collaboration started as a kernel of an idea while riding in the back of a college-issued Ford Taurus on the way home from a teaching and learning conference. It’s important to note that collaborative course work should involve immediate supervisors (chairs and deans), advisors, and the Registrar. In my situation, we needed to make sure the course was populated with future nursing students, which would be information the Registrar provided and advisors actively used for registration.
Final Thoughts
This collaboration provided students a way into a conversation about their major before they spent two years of preparation getting into their major courses. Unlike many other majors, nursing students do not take any nursing courses until they are accepted into the program, at least two years into their college education. For many, junior-level nursing courses are their first exposure to nursing concepts and conversations. A collaboration like the one I have presented allows an early look at disciplinary concepts and presents students with a stronger understanding of their educational decisions and career choices. Team teaching collaborative options and knowledge sharing that rely on HIPs, such as hands-on, experiential activities, can be designed to support strong communication skills and give students a concrete and vibrant support system that allows for intellectual curiosity and advanced critical thinking.
Dr. Stephanie B. Conner is a tenured associate professor of English with a focus on composition and Interdisciplinary Studies at the College of Coastal Georgia with over 25 years of experience. She has presented at nearly 40 conferences including the Conference on College Composition and Communication and published her work in journals such as Response to Writing. Her research is grounded in pedagogical best practices in college writing instruction as well as professional development in teaching and learning. Her most recent work includes a collaborative, dual-institution IRB-approved study with three other composition professors exploring faculty emotional responses to plagiarism and AI in writing courses and is due for publication at Composition Forum in spring 2026. Other research areas include incorporating Writing Center coaches into peer review activities and using weak examples as instructional material to bolster students’ critical thinking about citation and AI use. Dr. Conner has also worked collaboratively to develop a discipline-specific first-year writing course for students interested in the nursing program.
References
Bresciani, M. J. (2015). The neuroscience of learning and development and its implications for inquiry. Journal of Student Affairs Inquiry, 1(1), 1-11. https://vcsa.ucsd.edu/assessment/coalition/april-6_bresciani_the_neurosciene_of_learning_implications_for_inquiry.pdf
“High-Impact Practices | AAC&U.” American Association of Colleges and Universities, American Association of Colleges and Universities, https://www.aacu.org/trending-topics/high-impact. Accessed 6 Mar. 2026.
White, A. (2018). Understanding the university and faculty investment in implementing high-impact educational practices. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, 18(2), 118. https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v18i2.23143
