Quality Enhancement Plan - qep
The Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) reflects and affirms the commitment of Norfolk State University to enhance the quality of higher education in the region and focus attention on student learning. The QEP describes the carefully designed course of action that addresses a well-defined and focused topic, an issue related to enhancing student learning, and/or the environment supporting student learning; and accomplishing the mission of the NSU.
Developing the QEP presented the University an opportunity to enhance overall institutional quality and effectiveness by focusing on improving student learning, specifically student reading and writing achievement. The QEP looks to the future and is embedded within the ongoing integrated university-wide planning, assessment and evaluation process.
Norfolk State University’s QEP, Close Reading for Effective Writing – CREW, was identified through its ongoing, comprehensive planning and evaluation processes; has broad-based support of institutional constituencies; focuses on improving specific student learning outcomes and student success; commits resources to initiate, implement, and complete the QEP; and includes a plan to assess achievement (Quality Enhancement Plan).
Close Reading for Effective Writing – CREW
Norfolk State University's choice of Close Reading for Effective Writing (CREW) for its second Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) centers on the basic notion that reading and writing skills are complementary. All stakeholders of the University, especially faculty, staff, and student leaders, will work to improve the reading comprehension and writing competency of students by focusing on the traditional idea that reading academic texts and materials for analysis, context, and connection will lead to more effective writing. Through the use of the CREW close reading strategies, students will practice paying careful attention to all elements of a text (content, organization, tone, style, format, sentence structure, grammar, and such) in order to analyze, as well as comprehend the text. Students will also become familiar with effective writing practices, which can be transferred into their own writing.
Assessment of close reading for effective writing (CREW) at Norfolk State University will incorporate some of the assessment processes used for general education learning outcomes. The assessment of CREW learning outcomes will be accomplished through both direct and indirect methods. The direct method will apply to the curricular aspects of the plan, while the indirect method will use survey instruments to estimate the effectiveness of the plan.
The QEP Committee has enlisted the support of the University's Office of Communications and Marketing to develop a comprehensive publicity plan for CREW. Significant features of the plan include promoting the QEP/CREW through the timely release of information regarding the activities of NSU students, faculty, and staff; through collaboration with representatives from various community media; through an NSU QEP/CREW newsletter, the NSU annual report, the University’s magazine; and through internal and external partnerships that will benefit the student community.
The QEP/CREW program will be hosted on two NSU websites. The QEP/CREW Portal (Website) being developed in conjunction with the Office of Communications and Marketing will be hosted on the www.nsu.edu website to be accessible to the public. Content will include the QEP/CREW Program, including the activities of NSU students, faculty, and staff and other pertinent information. The QEP/CREW SharePoint Website is hosted on the NSU SharePoint website and is accessible to those with authorized usernames and passwords, such as members of the QEP Committee. It houses all QEP/CREW files: documents, working documents, confidential documents, reports, etc.