NSU's Quality Enhancement Plan April 2017

NSU QEP Development Process | 3 QEP Committee, a structure that had served well in the development, implementation, and assessment of NSU’s first QEP, would lead the development of the topic area and subsequent action plan. In the summer of 2014, Hanbury asked Barbara Packer-Muti, Ed.D., and Amon Seagull, Ph.D., to cochair the QEP Committee. Packer-Muti, NSU’s executive director of institutional and community engagement, had served as QEP director for NSU’s first QEP, which was approved in 2007. Seagull, associate dean at NSU’s College of Engineering and Computing, had served as vice chair of the QEP Committee that developed the first action and assessment plan. QEP Committee membership was established in the winter of 2014. Input on committee membership was sought from deans and faculty from 18 academic units across the university to ensure that each one was represented and that membership on the committee included both faculty and administration. In early 2015, library representatives were added to the committee. Committee membership was adjusted after the summer of 2015, when the university realigned its academic units so undergraduate and graduate programs within the same discipline would be in the same colleges. The membership adjustment ensured that the revised academic units would still be represented, while maintaining as much continuity of members as possible. The membership roster is kept current and publicly available within the NSU QEP website at the following URL: nova.edu/qep/members.html . The QEP Committee is further enhanced by student membership from NSU’s Pan Student Government Association, which is composed of two students representing each college. The QEP cochairs visit Pan Student Government Association meetings at least once per semester in order to gain input and ideas from students, as well as to ensure that NSU’s QEP is well known to, and understood by, student leadership. Topic Development Packer-Muti and Seagull first worked to identify institutional data that had been collected through existing planning and assessment efforts. Like any large, complex institution, NSU engages in a variety of assessments for a number of goals, many of which overlap with student learning. Those assessment activities produce substantial data sets, which Packer- Muti and Seagull reviewed during the fall of 2014. Those resources included the following: • NSU Student Surveys —One of the many outgrowths of the initial NSU QEP was an implemented student engagement instrument, conducted annually (since 2007) as a student survey. The 2013, 2014, and 2015 survey results (compiled as one report for each of the academic units) were reviewed for potential topics. Students’ comments were coded, and they showed that a majority of students supported enhancing instruction, often through the use of technology; supporting students who are online or at a regional campus; and providing accessibility to tutoring (writing labs) for graduate students. • “Town Hall” Meetings —President Hanbury annually convenes multiple town hall-style events where students and employees, in separate meetings, receive updates about current university initiatives and voice questions or concerns. Those questions are logged and are publicly available; the 2014 and 2015 data sets were reviewed for possible data supporting a QEP topic. Student comments, particularly at regional campus sites, supported the need for accessibility and resources for enhancing writing in multiple disciplines and at a variety of degree levels.