Minutes from the 2-9 QEP Meeting

Attendees: Rosemary B, Courtney C, Katie, Rosemary A, Katherine, Anand, Alan, Tim, Brad, Jason, Marsha, Courtney T, Steve T, Fred, Meagan, JoAnn, Christina

Alan review the program, products, and outcomes document he distributed earlier this week.

After some discussion, we agreed to remove the outcomes on experiential learning and long-term planning, as Alan had suggested.

Communication & Information Literacy Outcomes

Alan had included some Personal Responsibility outcomes in this section. After some discussion, we agreed to remove them. The outcome on bridging curricular and co-curricular activities (B.3.i) moves to the Co-Curricular section. We removed the outcome about reflecting on connections between diverse courses.

Alan will ask small groups to work on additional aspects of each of the section. Specifically, the groups will work on answering these questions:

1. Which units will be responsible for these activities? 2. To whom does the lead report? 3. With whom must lead cooperate and collaborate?

Small groups will also work on developing the assessment aspects of their sections. We discuss direct and indirect measures that can be used for assessment.

Co-Curricular Programs

We discussed the outcomes, programs, and processes in the Co-Curricular section.

There were questions about use of Mermaid for degree evaluation. It's not a supported system and not synced with Banner. We agreed that it would be best to remove mention of Mermaid and substitute the phrase "use appropriate tools."

Similar concerns arose about the MyPlan software in Career Services. They are moving to a better software package. Alan will talk further with Katie about the details, and he will make the references to MyPlan more generic.

We had extensive discussion about using attendance as part of our assessment, particularly class attendance. The Faculty agreed several years ago that attendance is not to be used as the basis for students' grades, except as it relates to class participation. Attendance as part of assessment is something the small group working on this area should look at.

We also discussed how mid-term grades can be used to monitor student progress. We asked Fred to work on a process for asking faculty to submit a mid-term grade of S or U (Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory) for all students. This is one of the best practices that supports retention and progress toward graduation for students at all levels.

Courtney T. described OrgSync, a program that Student Affairs has purchased, that can be used to keep track of which students attend events. It sounds like this program will be very helping in providing information to the peer mentors and the faculty on what first-year students are doing in the co-curricular arena. OrgSync includes the functionality of asking students to reflect of the events they attend.

We agreed that the reference to undergraduate research is out of place in this section.

Alan developed a tentative schedule for the FYA +1 program. He adapted this from the model from Mississippi State University that was distributed earlier. This is basically a skeleton syllabus for the program.

Timeline

We reviewed and revised the timeline Alan distributed earlier.

Some aspects of the timeline still need to be clarified, including when the QEP director can be hired and which implementation steps can be taken before the QEP is approved by SACS.

Next Steps:

Alan reviewed the QEP outline and asked for volunteers to work on each section.

I. Executive Summary -- this will be done last

II. Process used to develop the QEP -- Alan

III: Identification of the topic -- Nina Mikalevsy

IV: Outcomes along with data used to support that --  Marcia

V: Literature Review -- done

VI: Actions to be implemented -- Rosemary A

VII: Timeline -- Alan

VIII: Organizational structure --  Alan will draw from groups

IX:  Resources

X: Assessment -- Courtney C, Taiwo, Jason, Katie

Anand, Rosemary A and Gwen will work on further development of the Curricular Outcomes section. Courtney C and the folks working with her will develop the other areas.

All of this needs to be completed before our next meeting, which will be February 23.