February 25, 2013 Steering Committee Update

The Steering Committee continues to work to develop ideas, based on best practice, research, and other, model QEPs, for FGCU’s Quality Enhancement Plan which will focus on Writing, Critical Thinking, and Information Literacy.

The Steering Committee is very excited to share their work and get faculty feedback. Our QEP is one that will touch all undergraduate programs and work towards assisting our students in becoming scholars in their field. Faculty input into specific elements of the QEP will assist the committee in focusing the plan.

Quality Enhancement Plan Faculty Forums will be held as follows (please join us for one; light refreshments will be served):

• Tuesday, April 2, from 1:00-3:00 pm in Cohen 214
• Friday, April 5, from 9:00-11:00 am in AB7 114

In addition to gathering feedback during these forums, we will gather feedback on our Angel Webpage, which will open shortly after these forums conclude.

The next major step in the development of the QEP is to write the focus of the plan, the process for implementing the plan, and the budget for the plan. Because a QEP is a major institutional initiative that seeks to improve student learning of all undergraduate students, significant resources are allocated to this effort. The writing of the focus, the implementation plan, and the budget will occur in the Fall 2013 semester; at that time, we will reach out again for further feedback and input.

February 2013 Steering Committee Update

The Steering Committee met on January 28, 2013, to discuss the proposals that had been developed by the faculty working groups that had been convened in the Fall semester. In addition to proposals generated by the working groups, two other proposals had been generated, one by a faculty group that considered a curricular design approach and one as a result of discussions during the faculty meetings in the fall semester.

Each of the following proposals and models comes from a different perspective and offers brainstorming and synthesizing of the research and best practices that the faculty reviewed. Nevertheless, the proposals and models are not mutually exclusive; indeed, there is a great deal of overlap.

• QEP Model – Backwards Design

• QEP Model – Critical Thinking

• QEP Model – FGCU Scholars

• QEP Model – Information Literacy

• QEP Model – Writing in the Disciplines

As a result of this meeting, a subcommittee was formed to create a synthesis document that would be shared with the faculty at large in March.

Fall 2012 Steering Committee Update

The Quality Enhancement Plan Committee held an initial meeting at the start of the Fall 2012 semester to get oriented and to discuss a process for completing our work over the next two academic years. The QEP process has moved forward with the creation of three working groups, one for each area of the QEP: Writing, Critical Thinking, and Information Literacy. These groups have been tasked with reviewing best practices and prominent literature in these fields.

Leadership for these groups is as follows:

• Critical Thinking -- Kevin Aho
• Writing -- Carol Bledsoe and Linda Rowland
• Information Literacy -- Jackie Greene and Anna Carlin

For each of these areas, the working groups are completing the following tasks:

• Reading and summarizing best practices/research
• Selecting possible models/definitions/assessments for use at FGCU
• Sharing these models with the QEP Steering Committee.

In early spring 2013, once the working groups have completed their tasks, we will set up a process to share our work to date with the university community; this sharing will lead to a selection of models for writing, critical thinking, and information literacy and provide the basis for focusing FGCU’s Quality Enhancement Plan. At this point, we will also engage in a review of assessment practices and literature; this working group will be led by Tom Bevins.

At the end of the Fall semester, the working groups completed their task and shared the following documents with the Steering Committee:

• Critical Thinking Working Group Review of Literature and Best Practices

• Writing Working Group Review of Literature and Best Practices

• Information Literacy Working Group Review of Literature and Best Practices

These documents were shared with the Steering Committee and the next step was formulated: to create models and proposals which would be shared early in the spring semester.