The Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) will be transforming Longwood University into a stronger institution of citizen leaders in a matter of months. This plan will encourage the growth of citizen leaders through research and critical thinking.
“This plan really uses undergraduate research as a vehicle to improve core competencies, such as written and oral communication, information literacy and critical thinking,” said Electronic Resources Librarian Virginia Kinman.
The most recent update regarding the QEP involved the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges’ (SACSCOC) visit to Longwood Monday, March 17 through Thursday, March 20.
While at Longwood, the SACSCOC conducted many experiments and interviews in order to assess the quality of Longwood’s plan. They had to determine whether to give the Longwood QEP recommendations, which would have to be fixed in order for Longwood to move forward, or suggestions, which don’t have to be addressed to move forward. “The SACSCOC basically came to make sure our plan was in order,” said Joe Gills, QEP student representative. “I had an interview with a QEP evaluator, which sounded intimidating at first, but she only wanted to know how we felt the QEP would affect the students and how we were involved in its creation.”
The SACSCOC had no recommendations and only two suggestions for the QEP team. This is a rarity; usually if a school is undergoing a Quality Enhancement Plan, many critiques must take place for it to be a success.
“It was approved by 12 high-powered members of the SACSCOC from across the southern region with a lot of scrutiny,” said Dr. Cathy Roy, co-director of the SACSCOC QEP. “They were trying to find something wrong with it, and they couldn’t find anything wrong.” Roy stated that ultimately they are responding to data assessment in regards to students’ lack in written and oral communication, information literacy and critical thinking.
“We looked at where our students were preforming less than optimal and it’s these core competencies,” said Roy. “We’re responding to what the campus community wanted. It seemed like the bulk of students, faculty and staff wanted to enhance these core competencies while the other half wanted to improve student research, so why not marry the two?”
According to Kinman, in order to allow institutions to do something significant and improve student learning, there is this requirement for a Quality Enhancement Plan.
“The school has been presented with an opportunity to address student learning in a transformative way,” said Kinman. “We get feedback from the people who evaluated our work, and they gave us suggestions for strengthening our plan.”
The initial goals of the Longwood QEP are to improve students’ learning by facilitating their discovery of new knowledge, facilitating student faculty information and advancing an understanding of research and academic inquiry. “The biggest changes we’re making to the curriculum started with English 150,” said Roy. “We enhanced research skill development and practicing of research giving all students an opportunity to ask questions, become more informed on literature and problem solving.” The next change is made through discipline-specific or courses regarding individual majors, according to Roy. Thus, they prepare you for your final year where you will conduct one on one faculty-student research.
The SACSCOC Leadership Team still has to appoint a Director of the Office of Student Research (OSR). The OSR Director will implement the actions and goals of the QEP at Longwood. Faculty and students are more than excited for the implementation of the Quality Enhancement Plan starting summer 2014.
