Looking forward

By Tom Gresham

Have you ever wondered about the origins of Virginia Commonwealth University’s University College? Or how the Summer Reading Program came about? It was all part of the plan – the Quality Enhancement Plan.

In 2004, VCU became one of the earliest schools to devise a QEP, a relatively new requirement of the accreditation reaffirmation process of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The plan focused on improving undergraduate student engagement at VCU with a focus on the first-year experience.

The changes detailed in the QEP were more than mere tinkering. In fact, those initiatives “changed VCU as we knew it,” according to Jeff South, associate professor in the Robertson School of Media and Culture.

A decade later, VCU has developed a new plan designed to be similarly transformative.

The new QEP identifies four key areas that the university will target to improve the student experience at all levels – undergraduate, graduate and first professional. Those areas, which are labeled the four pillars of the plan, will focus on the core curriculum, digital engagement, academic advising and career planning and professional development – a wide-ranging but interconnected selection that aligns with the university’s strategic plan, Quest for Distinction, and its emphasis on student success.

Gardner Campbell, Ph.D., vice provost for learning innovation and student success and co-chair of the QEP Steering Committee, said the QEP reflects VCU’s enterprising nature.

“VCU aspires to be innovative, nimble, flexible, bold and pioneering,” Campbell said. “At a time of uncertainty and rapid change, many universities appear to be hunkering down and protecting their legacies. By contrast, VCU continues to create its legacy.”

Vikhyath Veeramachaneni, president of the Student Government Association, said the QEP shows a keen understanding of areas where the university can improve.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of student appreciation for this,” Veeramachaneni said.

The impact of the university’s previous QEP backs Veeramachaneni’s view. Prompted by the 2004 plan, VCU completed an overhaul of the first-year student experience. The most dramatic change was the establishment of the University College, which provided a centralized home for a range of services related to the undergraduate experience, such as advising, tutoring, writing assistance, orientation and organized group study sessions. In addition, the University College served as the home for Focused Inquiry, a newly implemented yearlong course that emphasized critical skill areas for thriving in a college setting, and the university’s Summer Reading Program.

Those changes proved to have a resounding impact for the university, improving first-year student engagement and success. First-year overall academic performance improved, as did first-year retention, which increased from 83 percent to 87 percent in the five years after the establishment of University College and Focused Inquiry.

The latest QEP aims to have a similar or ever greater impact. The plan’s pillars are designed to work in an interdependent fashion in the shared pursuit of improved student success. The overall focus of the plan is “Learning that Matters: Building a Culture of Generalizable Education.” The goal behind generalizable education is to ensure that VCU students receive “an education that has substantial and lasting impact beyond any particular course, major or degree.”

“Whenever we embark on a journey to build a culture of anything, being engaged in that process is an exciting and, at the same time, daunting endeavor,” said Laura Moriarty, Ph.D., vice provost for academic and faculty affairs. “But, in the end, when the culture is built, generalizable education will be embedded in the fabric of the university, and all students will benefit.”

Pillar I: “Discovering Connections: Tier II of the VCU Core Curriculum”

The QEP’s first pillar focuses on ways to strengthen VCU’s core curriculum by improving the university’s existing Tier II courses, which are required general education courses, and developing new courses. South, who serves as co-chair of the QEP Steering Committee, said these courses will “address intellectual histories and grand challenges unique to specific disciplines.”

VCU aims to build on the momentum provided by University College and Focused Inquiry and to extend gains in academic performance and retention to older students.

The focus of the pillar is to emphasize education for second- and third-year students within and among the disciplines, and to create a core general educational curriculum that encompasses all of the university’s academic units.

Veeramachaneni believes the core curriculum will provide a particular benefit for students, allowing them improved flexibility and giving them access to a wider variety of their peers. Students will be able to change majors without being stuck holding credit hours that will not transfer to their new degree pursuit, giving them a better chance of graduating in four years, he said. And students of different disciplines will interact more often.

“It will allow students who never otherwise would meet each other to be in the same classes and learn from each other,” Veeramachaneni said.

A common thread will be the assurance that students receive an education that blends the learning of skills with content knowledge.

“It’s about deeper learning – transferable knowledge and skills, things you might learn in one situation but can apply to new situations,” South said. “It’s also about discovering connections among disciplines, and between what’s happening in the classroom and what’s going on outside the classroom.”

South said these connections and transferable skills will be particularly important “for young people in an age of disruption when they likely will have several careers (perhaps some simultaneously).”

Pillar II: “Contributing to a Networked World: Digital Engagement”

“Digital Engagement” is a way of embracing the increasing importance of new media to learning and to the broader culture. Campbell said that VCU is focused on the possibilities of digital beyond just online learning, though that holds an important position in the university’s future. VCU’s focus, as signified with Pillar II, is to “empower learners to be Web makers, not just Web users,” he said.

“We want to encourage the distinctive and powerfully diverse voices of our learners – including our faculty and staff – to make themselves heard throughout our networked world, and to bring their generalizable educations to bear on the grand challenges and wicked problems that confront the world,” Campbell said.

Campbell said the “Digital Engagement” pillar views “every part of the learning community at VCU as an area of potential leadership in an age of intensive innovation and cultural change.”

This means enhancing both the university’s online course offerings and its Web-based scholarly opportunities, creating new educational pathways that combine disciplines and giving students more flexibility to pursue new forms of inquiry. Students will have ways to reduce the time it takes them to complete their degrees, including through the easing of “bottleneck” courses that are both necessary to graduate with a certain major and difficult to access because of their popularity and importance.

Pillar III: “Mapping Your Journey: Academic Advising”

As part of the QEP, the university will attempt to apply some of the tools and methods of the intensive first-year advising process to the advising experiences of second- and third-year students, including looking for ways to identify those students who are struggling with their courses and lagging behind. This means adding resources and continuing to adapt the advising system to best meet the needs of students.

Seth Sykes, Ph.D., associate vice provost of academic services in the University College, said the focus on advising comes in part from feedback from students indicating that they believe the advising process could work better. Sykes said second-year students and above tend to require more specialized knowledge from their advisers, who must have a more specific understanding of the curriculum. Advising of these older students will continue to reside in academic departments, but a new position will be created – an associate vice provost post – who will work with the departments to help implement changes outlined through the QEP. Departments will be required to develop assessment plans.

“We hope to improve our communication tools and training of advisers so that they will be more up to date with policy changes and curriculum changes,” Sykes said.

Advisers will be integral to making sure that students understand their educational choices and requirements.

“The plan is for advisers to be an active, engaged partner in a student’s education and someone who will help the students achieve their educational goals at VCU in a timely manner,” Sykes said.

Pillar IV: “Finding Your Vocation: Career Planning and Professional Development”

Joseph Testani, director of the University Career Center, said the QEP provides a guide to integrating career planning into a student’s academic tenure. Instead of students waiting to use the Career Center until graduation approaches, they will be encouraged to take advantage of career resources from the start. The idea, he said, is to help students treat career planning as a part of their academic pursuits and to understand the opportunities they have to prepare themselves for the professional world.

In addition, more career resources will be available for students. For instance, a major shift will be the addition of career planning courses into the curriculum for undergraduate and graduate students. Students will be able to take classes for credit that teach career management skills – “sustainable skills” that will help students well beyond their first job after college, Testani said.

“It’s going to give them more time to focus on career planning,” Testani said. “It will be a great opportunity for students.”

The QEP also places an emphasis on experiential learning, such as internships, and Testani said that VCU will develop unifying standards for interns and their employers to ensure that the experiences of VCU students are enriching ones.

The advising and career planning efforts increasingly will overlap. In particular, Testani said, the university’s academic advisers will be critical to career services’ efforts to inform students about the array of programs and resources they have. Career advisers and academic advisers will be able to work together to provide students with comprehensive guidance about their future at VCU and beyond.

The QEP was developed through the work of university leadership, including the provost’s office, and the QEP Steering Committee, which includes faculty, staff, administrators, students, alumni, retired faculty and community representatives. The committee sought feedback through open hearings, an online survey and direct interaction with various groups, such as the Faculty Senate and student organizations.

“Our hope is that the 2014 QEP will reflect the pride we take in our accomplishments to date, our unwavering commitment to a learner-centered education and our core belief in the transformative potential of ‘generalizable education’ for all learners, as well as the world they will help to build,” Campbell said.

“It’s very ambitious, but I think that speaks to who we are as an institution,” Sykes said. “We dream big.”

The Quality Enhancement Plan is available at sacs.vcu.edu/QEP.

 

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