Advisory Committee - Committee Charge

1. "The first step is for the QEP Director, the QEP Advisory Committee (QEPAC) and the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) to establish initial annual goals and objectives for the QEP. These goals must relate to initial supervision and coordination of the academic activities related to offering the courses involved, primarily IDS 3920 Colloquium, but also coordinating with faculty and administrators responsible for IDS 1301L Styles and Ways of Learning and IDS 2110 Connections."  (page 54)

2. "Also, the QEP Director and QEPAC will collaborate with the General Education Council and CCE to identify and perform an initial evaluation of all courses that address ecological perspective and community involvement. For example, during spring 2005 a survey will be given to all faculty to determine the extent that ecological perspective and community involvement content is being addressed in general education and major courses." (page 54)

3. "The QEP Director and QEPAC will also begin to examine evidence of the student learning that occurs in those courses. Initial data will be gathered from university students, faculty and staff, as well as from community members. Data will be collected in both quantitative and qualitative forms." (page 54)

4. "The QEP Director, with assistance from QEPAC, will also develop a standard form of portfolio assessment to evaluate the quality of learning related to ecological perspective and community involvement that occurs in IDS 1301L Styles and Ways of Learning, IDS 2110 Connections, and IDS 3920 Colloquium. The QEP Director and QEPAC will also specify a sampling plan to gather this benchmark data, and develop a rubric to be used to apply a score to the student work. This initial benchmark measurement is a modest start; however, it is data that can feasibly be collected in this beginning phase, and constitutes valuable data that can be collected on an ongoing basis for comparisons with future years. It is anticipated that the measurement of student learning will become more sophisticated as the QEP Director's office and QEPAC become fully established." (page 55)

5. Focus Groups Interviews

"Qualitative inquiry will be used to provide descriptive data in the participants own words and observable behavior. Focus group interviews, using a semi-structured interview technique, will be used to collect the qualitative data. Purposeful sampling, using homogenous samples of students, course faculty, community partners, and FGCU graduates and their employers will be used. Data will be analyzed and evaluated by the Office of the QEP Director, QEPAC, and CCE to provide information on the quality of learning that occurred, the quality of learning experience opportunities provided, and to gather recommendations for improvement." (pages 58-59)

The Quality Enhancement Plan Report also identifies the QEPAC as the entity that will assist the QEP office with planning for the QEP Training Institute; University Engagement Day; College-Based Training; and Novice Instructor Training.