ATLANTA — The University System of Georgia (USG) has awarded its inaugural Regents’ Award for Excellence in High-Impact Practices and Experiential Learning to Georgia State University’s Experiential, Project-based and Interdisciplinary Curriculum (EPIC) Program.
The Regents’ Awards represent the system’s highest recognition for excellence in teaching and advising among the state’s 26 public colleges and universities governed by the USG.
"As higher education undergoes shifts in a complex, evolving technological landscape and job market, the fundamentals of problem-solving and experiential learning will always remain at the core of student success," said Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. "I am delighted for Georgia State and our team to receive this recognition for our continuing work and dedication so that our students are prepared for success in college and in their careers."
EPIC was launched in fall 2019 to provide GSU students with a curriculum to help them become adaptable problem-solvers. The program offers opportunities to learn by doing in long-term projects and seeks to develop a more meaningful general education experience by showing students how their courses connect to one another.
“We’ve worked with over 100 Georgia State instructors over the past four years, so this is a group effort,” said Brennan Collins, Director of EPIC and Associate Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Online Education. “EPIC demonstrates that faculty development around high-impact practices in the classroom can play a significant role in improving student success.”
The system’s award recognizes the high-impact practices of the EPIC program such as EPIC’s Wicked Problems Project, engaging students in complex, real-world issues with no clear or easy solutions. With “wicked problems,” students must apply skills and knowledge from different fields to bring about different and sometimes contradictory points of view.
The system also noted EPIC’s work in engaging students through project labs that build connections to Atlanta.
Additionally, the USG recognized EPIC’s support for faculty development and learning communities to nurture and support the project. Further, the system noted the use of data to adjust and refine EPIC’s work.
The data indeed demonstrate EPIC’s positive impact upon the undergraduate learning experience, one of Georgia State’s nationally recognized strengths as the university has proven that students can succeed regardless of their background.
By the end of the program’s fourth year in 2022-23, EPIC’s retention rate was over 30 percent higher than the 2019 incoming class as a whole. Compared to the average incoming student in 2019, EPIC students were disproportionately eligible for Pell Grants, with slightly more first-generation college students compared to the university as a whole.
Additionally, this success came despite the disruptions to the higher education experience during the acute part of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the projects within EPIC of note include, but are not limited to:
- Pollitik: A public opinion lab where students working with Professor Ryan Carlin found fascinating results in analyzing public opinion surveys regarding international leaders and whether the public in their respective countries rally around leaders who contracted COVID-19. Other work in the Pollitik lab has included research on executive approval ratings in response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
- Krog Street Codex: The ever-changing artwork inside and alongside Atlanta’s Krog Street Tunnel may be ephemeral, but the Krog Street Codex project lab documents the changing nature of the tunnel, the hot spots for painting and messaging, and the ways that current events in society change the look and feel of this quintessential Atlanta landmark.
- CDC Virtual Exhibitions: Students have collaborated with the museum of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to share the history recent outbreaks, contributing to the development of virtual exhibits and educational resources.
- Mapping Atlanta: Aimed at public-facing mapping projects, including a mapping project of a UNESCO World Heritage Civil Rights Trail and an oral history map for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Museum.
- The Phoenix Project: Using the MARTA Archaeological Collection of the Anthropology Department that contains artifacts and material remains found by university archaeologists during the transit system’s initial rail line construction in the 1970s. Students learn about photography, 3D modeling, curation, geographic information systems and more.
EPIC is supported by the Georgia State Office of the Provost and The Teagle Foundation, in addition to recent grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
To learn more about EPIC, its project labs and affiliated faculty, visit https://epic.gsu.edu/.
