Enhancement Criteria, and Standards

Enhancement

According to SACS, "The QEP describes a carefully designed and focused course of action that addresses a well-defined topic or issue(s) directly related to enhancing student learning. Student learning is defined broadly in the context of the QEP and may address a wide range of topics or issues but, in all cases, the goals and evaluation strategies need to be clearly and directly linked to improving the quality of student learning. In order to ensure that the QEP is implemented, the institution integrates it into its ongoing planning and evaluation process." (page 21, CR 2.12, http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/handbooks/Exhibit%2031.Resource%20Manual.pdf)

Criteria

From discussions with SACS representatives both prior to and following the submission of our Plan in 2005, it became increasingly clear that "enhancement" had at least three different meanings:

  • from the perspective of curriculum and instruction, goals and associated student learning outcomes had to be developed to guide QEP efforts, and the number of courses that addressed these learning outcomes had to be expanded and made available to all undergraduates;
  • from the perspective of student assessment, internal assessments of student outcomes by QEP course instructors and external assessments of those outcomes by outside professionals had to be developed and implemented; and
  • from the perspective of program evaluation, mechanisms for "closing the loop" or using assessment results to help improve QEP courses and associated degree programs had to be developed and implemented.
  • Indicators of enhancement within each of these areas or clusters were developed to further guide QEP implementation and evaluation efforts.

Standards

To ensure that these clusters of enhancement reflected SACS requirements and would be clearly understood by different constituencies across campus, the QEPIC developed performance standards. These standards communicate where university-wide QEP efforts should stand at the end of our five-year QEP implementation period (i.e., by Summer 2010).