|
As part of our reaffirmation of accreditation by the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools (SACS), Methodist University has developed a Quality Enhancement
Plan (QEP). QEP projects are designed to focus on an aspect of student learning,
must be campus-wide in scope, and involve students, faculty, staff, alumni,
and administrators.
After consultation with students, staff, and alumni, the faculty of Methodist
University voted in the fall of 2007 to adopt the following as our Quality Enhancement
Plan:
The QEP committee is now pleased to present our QEP
document (updated April 14, 2009) for faculty, students, staff, alumni,
and friends of the University to read. Having been successfully being approved
by the SACS On-site Committee during its March visitation to campus, Methodist
University’s QEP will enter the first year of its implementation in August
2009. However, as the QEP is an evolving campus-wide initiative, we still welcome
comments and suggestions; please contact our new QEP Director, Arleen Fields,
at
or contact committee members at
Additionally, please see the QEP @ the Library
Web site for our blog and other QEP related materials and information.
If you don’t have time to read our entire QEP document, you
might want to read our QEP at a Glance document below.
QEP at a Glance
QEP History:
The selection of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) at Methodist University
involved a lengthy, campus-wide dialogue about academic direction and change.
It began as a disparate list of desired improvements solicited from and championed
by individual faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Although initially an ambitiously
inclusive but vague and incompletely articulated proposal, it finally emerged
as a focused, widely supported, well-researched, well-funded, and accessible
initiative to improve the reading skills of students by developing a campus-wide
culture of reading.
QEP Plan:
Our plan to create a culture of reading utilizes the existing freshman seminar
course, IDS110: The Methodist University Experience, which has recently been
revised to include a common freshman reading assignment. This assignment is
a recently published book chosen from popular literature, selected for its thought-provoking
potential. Our QEP will build on this course in several ways. Students will
be required to enroll in a genre-based Reading Circle in the freshman or sophomore
year. The object of these circles is to encourage students to read self-selected
material outside of their assigned coursework. To support this goal, the Davis
Memorial Library is creating a collection of fiction and other popular works.
To support the development of a culture of reading, we will continue to set
up "Reading Nooks" around campus to create reading friendly environments
in academic and recreational settings.
QEP Assessment:
The project, which has the slogan "Get Between the Covers," will be
assessed both formally and informally at many levels, including the individual
Reading Circles and student reading improvement and attitudinal changes. Instruments
will include NSSE, Nelson-Denny, and the College Base, rubrics for assignments
in IDS 110 and the Reading Circles, as well as internally generated attitudinal
questionnaires and surveys.
|
