QEP Selection and development process overview

Selecting our QEP Topic

The process began in September 2010 with a call to the faculty from the Provost for brief proposals for QEP topics. A QEP planning team (see roster in "QEP People" area) selected four brief (2-page) proposals for further development from among ten that were submitted. Four full proposals (10-page white papers) were submitted in early February and distributed to the campus community. The writers of each full proposal provided a brief overview of their topic at a university convocation on March 17, 2011 in Hendrix Theater. Time was provided after the presentations for questions and answers, and the presentations were streamed and archived for those who were not able to attend in person. Subsequently, all members of the university community were asked to vote for the topic that they believed should be ECU's QEP topic. Additionally, the Faculty Senate held a vote to rank the topic options. The vote totals and rank orders from the campus community and the Faculty Senate were presented to the Chancellor and SACS Liaison for ECU, who together made the final decision—in keeping with the votes of the Faculty Senate and the larger university community—to pursue improving student writing as our QEP topic.

A copy of the white paper proposing improvement of student writing as the QEP topic can be found here.

Developing our QEP Topic

This process began with the appointment of a university-wide QEP Development Council, a group of over 35 faculty, staff, and students. At the first meeting of this large group, a plan of work was developed (see the detailed QEP Development PowerPoint) and, during the fall of 2011, the QEP Council reviewed best practices in college writing instruction, investigated the current writing abilities of our students, surveyed both first-year and upper-division students about their writing experiences, and gathered information from faculty, staff, alumni, and local professionals about the kinds of writing students need to do to succeed at ECU and beyond. This work was accomplished by three working groups: the Writing Foundations Working Group, the Writing Intensive Working Group, and the Writing Beyond Working Group. Brief descriptions of and rosters for these working groups, along with a roster of the larger QEP Council, are available on the QEP main page.

Based on what was learned, the QEP Council drafted a set of Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and identified three QEP initiative areas for further development: student support, faculty support, and curriculum enhancement. Working groups, composed of members of the QEP Council and additional resource people as needed, reviewed research and best practice, investigated existing program structures at ECU, explored how other UNC schools and our peer institutions support students writers, and developed specific plans of action within each initiative area.