Scholarship of Impact

Impacts studies all start with a concern, work towards a goal, and vary in terms of whether or not good information exists out there to use.

Defining Scholarship of Impact

Definitions for a “Scholarship of Impact” emerged during the 2005 Summer Summit at Stanford University. Participants and facilitators were given the task of defining impact and what would constitute an impact study.

The ISEE team broadly defines impact as the measurement or evidence of change. Along with evaluation, research helps to define measures of impact that can be used to assess program changes (e.g., whether program goals were met). In turn, evaluation activities may inspire new theories and definitions of program impact. These examples like customwriting.com illustrate the linked relationship between research and practice. Practical problems prompt and define research problems, and research problems seek to find answers to resolve practical problems. As the scope and complexity of the problem increases, measures of “impact potential” - the capacity to cause changes - become important for breaking down seemingly intractable goals into more realizable intermediate goals.

Therefore, in the context of engineering education research, “impact studies” are distinguished from other kinds of research studies. While most studies seek to have theoretical and practical significance, impact studies seek to close the gap between research and practical problems.

Each Institute cycle involved adapting and improving the model from the year before, recruiting Scholars, hosting them at a week-long Summer Summit kick-off, academic year activities to support Scholars conducting their studies.

What Makes a Good Impact Study?

The Stanford Scholars reached consensus on some features of good impact studies:

• Intentional (with an explicit point of view)

• Collaborative (includes diverse stakeholders)

• Articulated at the start of the project

• Made up of intermediate goals (with intermediate metrics of success)

• Involve gathering information about the problem (drawing on existing information and collecting new information)

• Involve identifying impact pathways (those who care, who can facilitate or block progress)

• Meet the needs of the users (stakeholders)

• Involve telling a compelling story for different audiences

Impact studies all start with a concern, work towards a goal, and vary in terms of whether or not good information exists out there to use.

Key questions to consider were defined and compiled in a "Scholarship of Impact" study plan worksheet used by Scholars. Through this process, big goals of each individual’s impact study were broken down into framing first steps, describing information needed, and identifying who was important in the impact pathway.