Quality Enhancement Plan
The Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) is an important part of Coastal Carolina University's (CCU) reaffirmation of accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The QEP is described in standard 7.2:
The institution has a QEP that (a) has a topic identified through its ongoing, comprehensive planning and evaluation processes; (b) has broad-based support of institutional constituencies; (c) focuses on improving specific student learning outcomes and/or student success; (d) commits resources to initiate, implement, and complete the QEP; and (e) includes a plan to assess achievement.
What is the QEP?
The Belong@Coastal: Building Student Achievement Through Inclusive Engagement is a five-year, university-wide Quality Engagement Plan (QEP). It will run from 2022-2027.
Why do we have the QEP?
As part of the reaffirmation of the accreditation process, every SACSCOC institution is required to develop a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) which “identifies 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.”
Updated Quality Enhancement Plan
Coastal Carolina’s Quality Enhancement Plan underwent a review and revisions in Fall 2023 as recommended by SACSCOC to streamline the plan to increase its effectiveness. With that in mind, the Director of the QEP along with the QEP Advisory Board simplified the plan to the following programmatic objectives that were in the original version.
- UNIV 110 Module
- The Belong@Coastal UNIV 110 Pilot is a 5-week module that will be tested in select sections of UNIV110 across several colleges. The proposed module will aid current instructors with syllabus development, and more importantly provide first-year students with a shared curriculum. This is one of the best practices associated with first-year experiences.
- Select instructors will receive training in the Belong@Coastal UNIV 110 curriculum and will be supported as they teach the 5-week module in their regular UNIV 110 sections.
- We will assess the module both from the student and instructor perspective.
- Inclusive Curriculum Development Initiative (ICDI)
- Goal of ICDI is to make academic programs and their courses more inclusive and engaging for students. As the level of student preparation changes and overall student demographic changes, it is important for CCU to be responsive to those changes. The ICDI will include the following components:
- Faculty Training: Offer training and support for faculty to develop inclusive teaching practices, including creating diverse reading lists, using inclusive language, and promoting respectful classroom discussions.
- Inclusive Course Development Grants: Provide faculty with grants to augment courses to incorporate diverse perspectives, real-world applications, and experiential learning opportunities. Completion of the faculty training will be required as part of the grant application.
- Student Feedback Mechanism: Establish a system for students to provide feedback on course materials, ensuring they have a voice in the inclusivity of the curriculum.
- Additionally, we are particularly interested in supporting disciplines that find inclusivity challenging to implement. As such, there is a subset of ICDI that will target specific disciplines or courses for inclusion in the training. Faculty from these targeted disciplines or courses that agree to participate are guaranteed an ICDI grant.
- Goal of ICDI is to make academic programs and their courses more inclusive and engaging for students. As the level of student preparation changes and overall student demographic changes, it is important for CCU to be responsive to those changes. The ICDI will include the following components:
- Student Strengths Inventory (SSI)
- In collaboration with the Coastal Student Success Center (CSSC), the SSI is a brief survey that is distributed to the entire freshman class. Data collected from SSI is used to support student success and retention.
- The SSI began as a pilot study in year 1 of the QEP.
- In collaboration with the Coastal Student Success Center (CSSC), the SSI is a brief survey that is distributed to the entire freshman class. Data collected from SSI is used to support student success and retention.
- UBelong@Coastal Programming
- A small portion of the QEP will be devoted to supporting student programming and other student-focused activities, whether curricular or co-curricular, that have an expressed goal of enhancing students’ sense of belonging. These will be implemented in the following ways:
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- Student Organizational Grants
- Direct Programming
- Event Sponsorship/Co-Sponsorship
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- A small portion of the QEP will be devoted to supporting student programming and other student-focused activities, whether curricular or co-curricular, that have an expressed goal of enhancing students’ sense of belonging. These will be implemented in the following ways:
We look forward to your continued involvement and support of the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan. Should you have any questions or comments, please contact Dr. Simone Gause, Director of the QEP, at sgause1@coastal.edu or at the QEP account belong@coastal.edu. Chants Up!
- Students interested in becoming a CCUBelong Student Ambassador can find out more here.