QEP Update

New Blog Site for the QEP Update

2011-10-11T07:02:00.001-07:00

Hello. We moved to a new blog site. Our new blog address is http://blogs.nvcc.edu/qep/.

See you there!

How the GPS for Success fits in

2011-09-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

NOVA has a lot of initiatives and programs that deal with student success. How does the GPS for Success fit in? It will be the guide for the student as they interact with NOVA resources.

2011-07-29T04:10:00.000-07:00

After much research and collaboration, the GPS for Success is moving right along. Here are the major points:

Focus: Improved academic planning skills through academic advising.

Audience: First year students, particularly recent high school graduates.

Objective: By meeting with advising specialists early, students will learn how to develop an academic goal, select an appropriate program of study, and create an academic plan. With continued engagement with faculty advisors, students will learn how to select appropriate courses for their program, schedule classes according to their needs, and reflect on their academic performance.

The use of an electronic academic planning tool, early engagement with advising specialists, and continued engagement with faculty advisors will provide a more comprehensive and consistent advising experience.

Logo for the QEP

2011-04-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

A GPS requires thoughtful input and uses resources to deliver guidance. NOVA’s plan to restructure academic advising includes a new way of thinking about academic advising. We are moving away from prescriptive advising and towards advising as a learning experience. We want students to set goals, thoughtfully choose a program of study, work with advisors to plan an educational plan, and reflect on academic performance as semester schedules are created. The QEP includes plans to develop resources to help students become more responsible for their educational planning and help faculty and staff become better advisors.

Many thanks to Ms. Lisa Hill, Assistant Dean of Communication Design and her talented studio students. The QEP logo was created by Marvin Vargas, a student pursuing an A.A.S. degree in Communication Design.

Presentation on QEP details

2011-04-25T06:53:00.001-07:00

Click on the link below for a short presentation on the QEP
GPS for Success: Teaching and Learning through Advising

How will advising be restructured?

2011-04-14T11:14:00.001-07:00

Students will meet with an academic advising specialist prior to or early in their first semester. They will work together on goal setting and verification of program placement. The "advising specialist" is a new position and will be introduced to each campus.

Students will be assigned to a faculty academic advisor during their first semester. Faculty advisors will take a proactive approach to advising, connecting with students early and often.

Counselors will focus on their specialties, such as career counseling, transfer services, disability services, and veterans’ affairs. In addition, they will provide academic advising to general studies students, non-curricular students, and those on academic probation or warning.

Tools and resources are being developed to aid students, faculty and staff in teaching and learning through academic advising.

How to create a new advising world

2011-03-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

Your friendly QEP Development Committee is hard at work on projects to improve advising and enhance students' academic planning skills. Here are some of the projects we're working on:

Assessment of personal development general education goal
Restructuring of assignment of advisees to advisor
Establishment of director of academic advising and advising specialist positions
Development of advising training modules
Development of program of study exploration tools
Redesign of student and faculty advising websites
Investigation of CRM software for tracking advising
Creation of annual award for academic advising
Creation of student video contest to demonstrate importance of advising

You'll notice that a lot of these projects involve more than the QEP Development Commmittee. We're working closely with other college units and committees to ensure that we're all heading down the same road.

What are your FAQs?

2011-02-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

What are the questions regarding advising that you need answers to? Are there common concerns from students that you are frequently asked? Do you have questions and have trouble finding the answer (or someone who would know the answer)? What kind of training would you like to see available for faculty advising? How would you like to see the training delivered? Comments please.

GPS for Success: Teaching and Learning through Academic Advising

2011-01-07T11:17:00.000-08:00

How do you advise?

Advising is much more than helping a student select the courses for the upcoming semester. Advising is a developmental process. It includes the following:

discussion of life, career, and academic goals
examination of programs in line with goals
reflection on past academic performance
course selection
class scheduling

What kind of resources do you need to be a better faculty advisor?

Official title!

2010-11-18T13:25:00.000-08:00

The new title for the QEP is "GPS for Success: Teaching and Learning through Academic Advising."

The QEP Development Committee feels that this title speaks to the collaborative, developmental process of advising and the need for planning for academic success.

Updated draft of academic advising mission statement

2010-10-28T08:29:00.001-07:00

We've had lots of great comments on the draft of the academic advising mission statement from various college units. Here is a revision:

The purpose of academic advising is to help students identify the educational paths to develop and accomplish their personal, academic, and career goals. Through academic advising, NOVA students will build the on-going relationships with faculty, counselors, and staff necessary to forge those paths.

What is Academic Advising?

2010-10-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

The QEP Development Committee is working on a draft of an advising philosophy statement for NOVA:

The purpose of Academic Advising is to provide NOVA students with diverse services which will foster the building of on-going relationships between students, faculty and counselors through assorted and engaging activities including guided discussions, the use of analytical and evaluative tools, workshops and student development courses (SDV) to ultimately help students identify and/or develop stated personal, academic and career goals. Furthermore, the purpose of advising is to help students identify their educational paths and needs in response to their academic/personal goals.

Does this fit your concept of academic advising?

Appointment of QEP Development Committee

2010-09-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

The members of the QEP Development Committee have been appointed. These members were nominated and selected based on their commitment and dedication to academic advising. Each campus is represented by at least one teaching faculty member and at least one counselor. In addition, there is representation from Achieving the Dream, First Year Experience, Pathway to the Baccalaureate, and ELI.

For further information, please visit the QEP page on NOVA's reaffirmation website at http://www.nvcc.edu/about-nova/sacsaccreditation/qep/index.html

Partners in Students' Success

2010-08-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to the college units, student groups, and faculty groups for the submission of excellent proposals and valuable discussions.
It is clear that we want our students to make informed academic, personal, and career decisions. Faculty play a key role as partners in helping students achieve success.

In the year ahead, the QEP Development Committee will research best practices, identify resources, and assemble an action plan and an assessment strategy.

And the QEP is...

2010-05-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

As you know, we have spent the last academic year researching what NOVA’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) topic should be. After much discussion and deliberation, the topic of Enhanced Academic Advising has been selected as NOVA’s QEP. By creating connections between the students, faculty, and counselors, the QEP will have a transformative effect on student learning.

In order to prepare for our Reaffirmation of Accreditation by SACS COC in June 2012, we now move into the development phase of the QEP. This must be a college-wide effort and requires dedication by thoughtful faculty and staff.

Committee members will work together on a regular basis to develop the implementation plan for the QEP, which is due to SACS COC in October 2011. The members of the committee will also be your campus’ QEP representatives. The nominees should be passionate about the topic and improving student learning. Nominations will be taken under consideration in order to form a cohesive team.

Each provost to nominate at least two members from each campus to be part of the QEP Development Committee. Please let your provost know if you would like to take advantage of this opportunity to make a significant impact on student learning.

The top 4 have been selected!

2010-03-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your thoughtful comments regarding the QEP proposals. The NOVA SACS Steering Committee reviewed the proposals carefully and decided to send four of them on for approval. Recall that NOVA will have one topic as the focus of the QEP. This topic must address student learning or the environment that supports student learning.

The four proposals are Citizenship Across the Curriculum, Early Academic Engagement, Enhanced Academic Advising, and Increasing Math and Science Literacy for Non-Majors. Here is a summary of the proposals. Your comments are always welcome.

Once the topic has been selected, a QEP development committee will be formed to investigate best practices and detail how NOVA will enhance student learning through the QEP.

If you have any questions about the proposals or the QEP process, please e-mail QEP@nvcc.edu.

Thank you for your input and suggestions!

Early Academic Engagement Program

2010-03-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

The Achieving the Dream team used your feedback and re-tooled their proposal. Here is a link to the revised proposal: Early Academic Engagement Program

Revised Proposals

2010-03-05T06:19:00.000-08:00

Many thanks for your comments, which have contributed to the revisions of several of the proposals. Please click on the titles to review the revised proposals. Your comments are valuable!

Enhanced Academic Advising (revised March 2010)
Citizenship Across the Curriculum (revised March 2010)
Increasing Math and Science Literacy for Non-Majors (revised March 2010)
Experiential Learning

New proposal: Increasing Math and Science Literacy for Non-Majors

2010-02-23T06:06:00.001-08:00

Many thanks to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Faculty Learning Community for this proposal.

Increasing Math and Science Literacy for Non-Majors

Revised Enhanced Academic Advising Proposal

2010-02-22T11:00:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to everyone who contributed comments to refine the Academic Advising Proposal. Here is the "new and improved" proposal: Enhanced Academic Advising (Revised)

First Year Experience

2010-01-22T08:02:00.000-08:00

Here is a new proposal, submitted by NOVA's Achieving the Dream team. It addresses the many needs of incoming students. Click on the link below.

First Year Experience

Preliminary Proposals

2010-01-07T11:54:00.000-08:00

Here are some preliminary proposals for you to consider. Remember, there can only be one QEP. How do you feel that NOVA should enhance student learning? Click on the links below and post your comments.

Improving College Readiness
Enhanced Academic Advising
Experiential Learning
Citizenship Across the Curriculum
Getting Back on Track through Early Warning
Enhanced Faculty-Student Collaboration

QEP video

2010-01-05T06:05:00.000-08:00

Click on the link to view a video introduction to the QEP: http://www.nvcc.edu/depts/tac2/qep/previewqep/

How would YOU enhance student learning?

2009-12-07T12:18:00.000-08:00

The QEP topic selection process is open to the NOVA community. Do you have a topic that you would like to submit? How do you think NOVA should enhance student learning? Watch the QEP video to learn more!

What is NOVA's QEP?

2009-12-01T09:01:00.001-08:00

Faculty, staff, and students have been working on preliminary QEP topic proposals. Here is what we are considering:

Service Learning: integrating service projects and classroom learning.

Learner-Centered (21st century) Classrooms: Rethinking how we teach and changing the physical space in which we teach.

Getting Back on Track: How can NOVA help students who are on academic warning or probation?

Increasing College Readiness: Taking college-level classes, preparing for the future, understanding expectations, placement exam issues and more!

Citizenship Across the Curriculum: "we must assure that those who study in our classrooms acquire a basic understanding of the world in which they live and the important place they occupy within it."

Faculty-Student Collaboration: Increasing the opportunities for students and faculty to work together outside of the classroom.

Curriculum-Centered Education: Establishing a repository for course information and being accountable for what we teach.

Student feedback is wanted!

2009-11-10T07:47:00.000-08:00

Students can take a short survey that addresses their learning needs at
http://survey.vccs.edu/wsb.dll/s/41g7e3

Welcome to the QEP Update!

2009-10-19T11:15:00.001-07:00

NOVA is gearing up for reaffirmation of accreditation by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS COC) in 2012. This reaffirmation process requires the development of the Compliance Certification Report and the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).

The QEP involves developing and assessing a strategy that NOVA will use to improve one facet of student learning. According to SACS COC, student learning addresses knowledge, skills, behavior, and values. How do we choose our plan? Well, that’s where you come in! The QEP requires broad-based institutional involvement. Discussions with faculty, staff, and students from each campus will get the process started. How do you think NOVA should enhance the quality of student learning?

NOVA will investigate various topics from each campus and select a topic by the spring of 2010. A very detailed plan addressing the implementation and assessment strategy of our topic will be submitted to SACS COC in August 2011 and reviewed by the on-site review committee. SACS COC will revisit the QEP in 2017 to see how we are doing.

What plans have other college submitted? Some topics include enhancing academic support services; enhancing student retention; incorporating field experience and collaborative learning; enhancing online education; enhancing student learning outcomes in developmental mathematics; including supplemental instruction; learning in a technology-rich environment; and improving student engagement through critical thinking. While many of these ideas are applicable to NOVA, we want to develop our own plan that addresses one aspect of student learning at NOVA.

What’s our QEP? Let’s decide together!