Quality Enhancement Plan:

1. Quality Enhancement Plan: The Vertical Writing Curriculum

2. What is a QEP? • In short, it is a plan to implement and assess a focused set of initiatives designed to improve student learning across the university. • In detail, it is “a document developed by the institution that • includes a process identifying key issues emerging from institutional assessment • focuses on learning outcomes and/or the environment supporting student learning and accomplishing the mission of the institution • demonstrates institutional capability for the initiation, implementation, and completion of the QEP • includes broad based involvement of institutional constituencies in the development and proposed implementation of the QEP, and • identifies goals and a plan to assess their achievement.” --SAC/COC , “QEP Evaluation Criteria”

3. SACS Principle • Core Requirement 2.12. The institution has developed an acceptable Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) that includes an institutional process identifying key issues emerging from institutional assessment and focuses on learning outcomes and/or the environment supporting student learning and accomplishing the mission of the institution.

4. SACS Principle • Comprehensive Standard 3.3.2. The institution has developed a Quality Enhancement Plan that (1) demonstrates institutional capability for the initiation, implementation, and completion of the QEP; (2) includes broad-based involvement of institutional constituencies in the development and proposed implementation of the QEP; and (3) identifies goals and a plan to assess their achievement.

5. QEP Document • Text limit of 75 pages plus 25 pages of appendices • Sections: • Executive Summary (one page) • Process Used to Develop the QEP • Identification of the Topic • Desired Student Learning Outcomes • Literature Review and Best Practices • Actions to be Implemented • Timeline: A logical calendaring of all actions to be implemented • Organizational Structure • Resources • Assessment • Appendices (optional) • Key principle: thedocument has to “make the case” by providing evidence supporting each of the five evaluation criteria.

6. QEP Review: Who & How? • An “On-site Reaffirmation Committee” is responsible for evaluating the acceptability of the QEP and confirming that it is part of an ongoing planning and evaluation process. • Includes a minimum of 7 members: the Chair and evaluators in the areas of organization and governance, faculty, educational programs, student support or library services, institutional effectiveness, and the QEP. • Includes a “Lead QEP Evaluator,” who should be familiar with the theme and who may be nominated by the university. • Meets with small groups of “representative of the constituencies involved in creating and implementing the plan, such as the QEP Committee, faculty responsible for the QEP’s implementation, administrators responsible for providing support, students, institutional research and assessment personnel, and staff in related student services.”

7. QEP Review: Who & How? The On-Site Review Report Section A. Provides a very brief description of the Quality Enhancement Plan focusing on the main elements. Section B. Uses the 5 evaluation criteria (see above) to determine the acceptability of the QEP. Section C. Highlights strengths that have not been addressed in previous sections and provides advice to assist the institution in strengthening its QEP. **We should expect to make revisions after the on-site visit.

8. Where are we in the QEP process? • We have made it part way through step one, the “process of identifying key issues emerging from institutional assessment.” • We have, as a university, selected the broad issue of student writing as an area of student learning that we wish to improve.** • Now, we need outcomes, initiatives, implementation plans, assessment plans, and budgets!

9. The QEP Council: Responsibilities and Next Steps • Identify a limited number of broad and measurable “Student Learning Outcomes” and/or changes to the learning environment ** that will help the university move student writers successfully from entry to graduation and beyond. • Research what we as an institution currently do to help students achieve these outcomes. • Research best practices for achieving these outcomes (professional literature, programs at other institutions, etc.) • Identify a limited but far-reaching set initiatives that ECU can implement to help our students reach higher levels of achievement in the outcome areas. • Develop assessment and implementation plans for the initiatives. • Determine realistic budgets for the initiatives. • Plan a substantial “QEP Awareness” campaign, designed to engage faculty, staff, and students in discussions of the initiatives being considered and to raise overall campus investment in the QEP.

10. How do we move ahead? • We have a framework— “The Vertical Writing Curriculum” as introduced in the QEP White Paper—for structuring our progress. • Remember, as SACS explains, “Developing a QEP is a recursive rather than a linear process, much like any other important, deliberative, and reflective planning and writing project. An institution should expect the focus and framework for the QEP to shift and evolve as the research, writing, talking, and campus participation occur.”

11. Think about the most recent thing you have written that related, in some way, to your job. • How did you know what to write and how to write it?

12. Hopes for Writing Instruction

13. The Vertical University Writing CurriculumGeneral Specialized Writing Instruction

14. QEP Working Groups “Writing Foundations” Group –Wendy Sharer, Chair • Generalized academic writing • Writing Foundations Courses & Related Programs/Initiatives “Writing Intensive” Group—Will Banks, Chair • Discipline-based writing • Writing in WI courses outside of English 1100/1200 • Advancing/practicing “academic writing” across the curriculum “Writing Beyond” Group—Michelle Eble, Chair • Writing for careers/professions • Writing for advanced study/graduate school • Writing for life after ECU BA/BS • Within these groups, we will take up the Council’s responsibilities, coming back together as a whole group to share ideas and gather feedback.

15. Working Group TasksFall 2011/Spring 2012 • Research and review existing processes, procedures, resources, and best practices*** for helping student writers as they move through and beyond the university. • Identify ONE new, significant initiative designed to improve student learning/achievement . **Initiatives may (and probably will) cross over the writing groups. ***Initiatives may (and probably will) have multiple facets.

16. Working Group Tasks, Cont.Fall 2011/Spring 2012 • Each working group will develop a specific plan for how their initiative can be implemented, including identification of • who (offices, departments, people, etc.) needs to be involved • what new resources (programs, offices, services, etc.) need to be developed for successful implementation • what the outcomes of this specific new initiative will be (these outcomes should be related to the broader QEP Outcomes the Council identifies) • how the initiative will be assessed to determine if it meets the outcomes • what funding is needed to implement, sustain, and assess this initiative • a timeline for implementation over the course of the QEP period (Fall 2013-Fall 2018, when the “Five- Year Impact report” for the QEP is due)

17. Council/Working Groups Task #1:Determining Our QEP Outcomes • Our outcomes should articulate what we—facultyfrom across the university, students from across the university, and stakeholders beyond the university—want/need students to be able to do as writers as they proceed through their university experience and into their post-graduate lives. • Examples (handout)

18. “Outcomes Questions” Questions to help us identify QEP outcomes “Writing Foundations” Questions (English 1100 and 1200) • What do we want students to be able to do as writers when they complete their “writing foundations” courses? • What do we want students to be able to do as writers when they enter WI courses outside of their majors? • What do students need to be able to do as writers when they enter WI courses outside of their majors? • What do we want students to be able to do as writers when they enter WI courses in their majors? • What do students need to be able to do as writers when they enter WI courses in their majors?

19. “Outcomes Questions” Questions to help us identify QEP outcomes “Writing Intensive” Questions • What do we want students to be able to do as writers when they have completed their WI courses outside of their majors? • What do students need to be able to do as writers when they have completed their WI courses outside of their majors? • What do we want students to be able to do as writers when they complete their WI courses in their majors? • What do students need to be able to do as writers when they have completed their WI courses in their majors?

20. “Outcomes Questions” Questions to help us identify QEP outcomes “Writing Beyond” Questions • What do we want students to be able to do as writers when they enter their first jobs? • What do students need to be able to do as writers when they enter their first jobs? • What do we want students to be able to do as writers when they enter graduate programs? • What do students need to be able to do as writers when they enter graduate school? • What do we want ECU graduates to be able to do as writers in the world “beyond” ECU? • What do ECU graduates need to be able to do as writers in the world “beyond” ECU?

21. Council/Writing Groups Task #2:Learning What We Do & Documenting Best Practices • What do we currently have in place, at different levels and locations, to support students as they learn to write their way through the curriculum? • What/where are the gaps? • How have others addressed these kinds of problems? • What seems to work well? • Are there models that we can use as a basis for some of our actions? **Reminder: document sources—keep a list of references.

22. QEP Supports • QEP Resource Center in Joyner Library • QEP Sharepoint • QEP “consultants”—Elizabeth Wardle, TBA • Your ideas ALWAYS welcome!

23. QEP: Becoming Visible • Awareness Initiatives • Student newspaper • Flyers • Cards • Banners • Facebook • Yammer • Graphic Design majors working on a visual • Catchy name/Slogan?

24. Timeline for First Steps Individual members--by Sept. 19th • Submit QEP name ideas via email to sharerw@ecu.edu Working Groups—by October 17th • Determine, and begin to implement, processes for gathering responses to the “Outcomes Questions” • Investigate ECU’s current practices, services, and processes for the stage of the “vertical writing curriculum” assigned. • Investigate best practices related to the stage of the “vertical writing curriculum” assigned. • Prepare a report on these 3 things for discussion at QEP Council Meeting the week of October 17.

25. QEP Lessons Learned from Talking with other institutions • Need potential scope of new money early on • Need to get detailed task plans done early • Identify associated management involvement • Identify student learning outcomes • Identify assessment approaches • You can’t be “everyone’s friend”—hard decisions are required • Talk to students a lot • Need a single author voice —writes well AND knows the details of the plan

26. Acquiring and Keeping Focus • Many ways to address selected QEP topic • Best practices review • Broad acquisition of proposed actions • Focus groups • Solicited or unsolicited proposals • Need to address specific problems at institution • Specific ideas generate new ideas • Strategy to categorize and synthesize • Financial and management scope