Developing a QEP Topic

1. Developing a QEP Topic September 24, 2010

2. Quality Enhancement Plan “…describes a carefully designed course of action that addresses a well-defined and focused topic or issue related to enhancing student learning.” (Commission on Colleges,2007)

3. Common QEP Topic Areas • Student engagement • Writing • Critical thinking • Mathematics • Developmental Education (2+ areas) • Communication

4. QEP Topics Used At Other Colleges • First Class: Creating a Culture of Student Engagement and Success through a New Student Experience Program (Baton Rouge Community College) • Write to Learn, Write to Earn (Beaufort County Community College) • GOALS: Growing On All Levels Successfully (Brunswick Community College) • Improving Student Success in Developmental Math (Haywood Community College)

5. QEP Topics Used At Other Colleges • First Year Experience: Reading My Way To Learning (Maysville Community College) • Learning to Fish: Problem-Solving for Learning and Career Choices (Nunez Community College) • PASS It On! (Somerset Community College) • Critical Thinking through the WRITE Plan: Writing and Reasoning to Improve Thinking Effectiveness (South Georgia College) • Wisdom Education: An Intentional Approach to Integrating Character and Intellect (Toccoa Falls College)

6. QEP Topics Used At Other Colleges • BASICS: Building All Students’ Intrinsic Communication Skills (Central Carolina Community College) • Student Engagement to Enhance Student Success (Coastal Carolina Community College) • Soar with Math Excellence: A Plan to Enhance Student Learning in Basic and Intermediate Algebra (Dyersburg State Community College) • From Access to Success: Enhancing Student Learning in English (Mississippi Delta Community College)

7. QEP Topics Used At Other Colleges • Math Rules: The Art of Contextualizing MAT 060 (Mitchell Community College) • Skills for Student Success (Northeastern Technical College) • Launching Better Learners through Critical Thinking (Patrick Henry Community College) • SOAR: Strengthening Orientation, Advising, and Retention (Virginia Highlands Community College) • Writes of Passage: Writing Across the Curriculum (Southwestern Community College)

8. What makes a QEP • It addresses a weakness in: • Student learning. • Student persistence. • Student service. • It focuses on student success. • Identifies educational outcomes. • It develops a “system” to address the weakness. (not just a pen stroke change in policy). • It requires us to develop a “new approach.” • It identifies “expected” changes that will result.

9. Where Do We Begin March 6, 2009 Workshops

10. Topic Headings • ACA 115 • Require all students to take an ACA type course within their first semester. • Advising • Conduct advisement workshops for faculty and staff • Suggested advisement practices • Communication

11. Instruction • Establish and maintain an institution-wide, classroom-based emphasis on the real world relevance of course content. • Include a “life skills component in classes other than ACA to reach the entire student body and reinforce the ACA course instruction. • Student accountability • Late Registration • Orientation • Provide one-stop shopping with orientation, registration, placement testing, counselor meetings, etc. all on the same day. • Mandatory orientation “College 101” required prior to a student’s first semester

12. Registration (Improve it) • Student support system (Comprehensive) • Volunteers to aid in programming • Mentoring program for students

13. What makes a QEP • It addresses a weakness in: • Student learning. • Student persistence. • Student service. • It focuses on student success. • Identifies educational outcomes. • It develops a “system” to address the weakness. (not just a pen stroke change in policy). • It requires us to develop a “new approach.” • It identifies “expected” changes that will result.