The Quality Enhancement Plan: An Overview

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The Quality Enhancement Plan An Overview

• Dr. Virginia Caples, University Professor and
  Extension Administrator
• Southern University at New Orleans
• QEP Workshop
• October 17, 2008
• New Orleans, LA

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SACS Principles Of Accreditation Quality
Enhancement

• Quality Enhancement- Institutions are
• expected to enhance the quality of programs
• and services. The COC expects institutions to
• engage in continuous programs of improvement
• and can demonstrate and document such in
• relationship to its stated mission.

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Enhancement

• An existing entity, activity, process, etc.
• Evolves from, or is an outgrowth of the
  institutional planning, effectiveness, and
  continuous quality improvement process
• Specialized analysis
• Quality should be a given

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Quality Enhancement

• The context for quality enhancement is a
  continuous improvement plan referred to as
  Institutional Effectiveness (IE) by SACS.
• IE is an ongoing, integrated, and institution-
  wide research-based planning and evaluation
  process
• Systematic Review of mission, goals, outcomes
• Continuous improvement of institutional quality
• Demonstrates effectiveness of accomplishing the
  institutional mission

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Institutional Quality Enhancement Principles

• Continuous quality improvement is an
  institution-wide ongoing process involving
  central and decentralized units and activities.

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QE Principle

• Participation in continuous quality improvement
  is not optional for any unit or activity.

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QE Principle

• Continuous quality improvement must be
  representative, responsive, and appropriately
  structured for each units involvement.

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QE Principle

• Continuous quality improvement requires
  institutional commitment at all levels

Governance
Administration
Faculty
Students
Staff
Community at-large
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QE Principle

• Continuous quality
• improvement is
• based upon ongoing self-compliance assessment
  (audits).

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Governance Board
Executive Administration
Agricultural Environmental Sciences
Admission
Testing
Arts Sciences
Cooperative Extension
Engineering Technology
Business
International Programs
Education
Title III
Learning Resources
University College
Registrar
Graduate School
Comptroller
Academic Affairs
Computer Services
Public Relations
Human Resources
Grants Contracts
Purchasing
Executive Administration
Executive Administration
Business Finance
Governance Board
Governance Board
Research Development
Physical Facilities
Alumni Affairs
Property Management
Auxiliary Enterprises
Student Affairs
Tele-communications
Public Safety
Instramural Sports
Student Health
Residential Life
Chaplain
Financial Aid
Student Activities
Counseling Development
Career Development
Executive Administration
Governance Board
It takes a whole university to graduate a
student!
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Assessment

• Establishes clear, measurable expected learning
  outcomes, goals, objectives
• Ensures sufficient opportunity to achieve
  outcomes, goals, objectives
• Systematic gathering, analyzing, and interpreting
  evidence to determine the level of achievement
• Using results to understand and improve learning,
  activities, programs, etc.

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Assessment
1. Establish Goals
2.Provide Learning Opportunities
4. Use the Results
3. Assess Student Learning
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A Culture of Evidence

• Claims Evidence Assessment

What does the student have to do to prove that he
or she has the knowledge and skills claimed?
What do we want or need to say about students,
programs, activities, etc.?
What assessment tools and/or activities will
elicit the evidence that you will need about the
students knowledge and skills?
Ex
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
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Quality Enhancement Plan

• The Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) is the
  component of the accreditation process that
  reflects and affirms the commitment of the
  Commission on Colleges to the enhancement of the
  quality of higher education and to the
  proposition that student learning is at the heart
  of the mission of all institutions of higher
  learning.

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Core Requirement 2.12

• Core Requirement 2.12 The institution has
  developed an acceptable Quality Enhancement Plan
  (QEP) that (1) includes a broad-based
  institutional process identifying key issues
  emerging from institutional assessment, (2)
  focuses on learning outcomes and/or the
  environment supporting student learning and
  accomplishing the mission of the institution, (3)
  demonstrates institutional capability for the
  initiation, implementation, and completion of the
  QEP, (4) includes broad-based involvement of
  institutional constituencies in the development
  and proposed implementation of the QEP, and (5)
  identifies goals and a plan to assess their
  achievement.

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Student Learning

• Defined, yet an expandable end
• Confluence to form outcomes that seek toproduce
  graduates that function effectively in a
  dynamic, global, and pluralistic world with a
  sound ethical foundation.

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Interactions
Content
Activities
Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills
Student Learning
Processes
Procedures and Policies
Affirmation andTransformation
Products
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Student learning is changes in

• Knowledge
• Skills
• Attitudes
• Values

As a result of the university experience
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Understanding the Learning Environment

• The primary mission of the University is to
  produce graduates that function effectively in a
  dynamic, global, and pluralistic world with a
  sound ethical foundation.
• This mission can be best achieved through strong
  integrated teaching, research and public service
  components under-girded by effective and
  efficient student and administrative support
  services. Thus, the entire campus community is
  the learning environment as well as external
  influences.

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Know the Learning Environment

• Faculty
• Facilities
• Use of Technology
• Learning Centers
• Living Learning Centers
• (Residence Halls)
• Student Characteristics

• Student Support Services
• Financial Services
• Level of Scholarship Support
• Social Interaction
• Health and Safety
• Curriculum

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Quality Enhancement Plan

• Carefully designed focused course of action
  (framework, blueprint, plan of action, guide)
• Addresses clearly defined issues, actions, or
  events related to enhancing student learning and
  development
• Compliments, the ongoing integrated institutional
  planning, effectiveness, and the continuous
  quality improvement process
• Component of the accreditation process that
  affirms student learning as the centerpiece of
  the institutions mission
• Opportunity to enhance overall quality

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Quality Enhancement Plan

• Evolves from the results of the planning and
  evaluation process
• Institutional analysis
• Prescribes benchmarks and outlines processes for
  achievement based on best practices
• Should not be bound by tradition, rather
  energized by creativity, innovation, and
  technology as appropriate

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Defining Program and Student Learning Outcomes

• Program outcome
• A specific, measurable statement that describes
  desired performance
• Operational outcome
• a type of outcome that addresses operational or
  procedural tasks, such as efficiency or
  satisfaction
• Student learning outcome
• Specific type of program outcome that describes
  the intended learning outcomes that students must
  meet on the way to attaining a particular degree
• More precise, specific, and measurable than goal
• There can be more than one outcome related to
  each goal
• A program or student learning outcome can support
  more than one goal

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Think SMART When Defining Operational and Student
Learning Outcomes

• Specific
• Clear and definite terms describing the
  abilities, knowledge, values, attitudes, and
  performance
• Measurable
• It is feasible to get the data data are accurate
  and reliable it can be assessed in more than one
  way
• Aggressive but Attainable
• Has potential to move the program forward
• Results-oriented
• Describe what standards are expected from
  students or the program
• Time-bound
• Describe where you would like to be within a
  specified time period

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Outcomes and Performance Indicators are Linked
Concepts

• Program Outcome
• Operational outcome
• Type of outcome that addresses operational or
  procedural tasks, such as efficiency or
  satisfaction
• Student learning outcome
• Type of program outcome that describes the
  intended learning outcomes that students must
  meet on the way to attaining a particular degree
• Performance indicator
• A means of objectively quantifying the results of
  programs, products, projects, or services
• When defining outcomes, it may be useful to think
  about potential performance indicators first

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The Quality Enhancement Plan

• Should reflect
• - Enhancement of student learning and
  development
• - Institutional Commitment
• - Leadership
• - Process
• - Sources
• - Scope
• - Implementation and Assessment Strategies
• - Resources

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The Mouse Story
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• A Mouse looked through the crack in the wall to
  see the farmer and his wife opening a package.
  "What food might this contain?" He was devastated
  to discover it was a mousetrap.   Retreating
  to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the
  warning. "There is a mousetrap in the house!
  there is a mousetrap in the house!" The
  chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head
  and said "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a
  grave concern to you, but it is of no
  consequence to me. I cannot be bothered
  by it."   The mouse turned to the pig and
  told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house."
  The pig sympathized but said, "I am so very
  sorry Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can
  do about it but pray. Be assured that you are
  in my prayers."  The mouse turned to the cow.
  She said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you. But
  it's no skin off my nose." So the mouse returned
  to the house, head down and dejected, to face the
  farmer's mousetrap alone.
• That very night a sound was heard throughout the
  house like the sound of a mousetrap catching its
  prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was
  caught.  

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• In the darkness she did not see that it was a
  venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.
  The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer
  rushed her to the hospital and she returned
  home with a fever.  Now, everyone knows you
  treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the
  farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the
  soup's main ingredient.  But his wife's
  sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came
  to sit with her around the clock. To feed them,
  the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife
  still did not get well.  She died And so many
  people came for her funeral the farmer had the
  cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of
  them.  
• So, next time you hear someone talking about QEP
  and asking for your involvement, remember that
  the QEP is an institutional concern that requires
  the involvement of all units and components.