This executive summary of Palm Beach Atlantic University’s QEP is intended as an introduction only. The complete plan will be submitted to the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools prior to the On-Site Review in March 2018.
The purpose of Reach Out, Reach In, Reach Up: Intellectual, Spiritual, and Character Development of Students through Service Learning is to foster Christ-focused intellectual, spiritual, and character development of students, through service learning coursework that integrates academic learning and community application.
A. Instruction and Assessment: we are focusing our efforts on courses within individual majors, as the focus during our previous QEP was on general education courses. For the purposes of this QEP, an entry level and upper level course are selected within certain majors, such as Business, Communication, and Ministry. This approach has two advantages. First, it ensures that we are including a wide cross-section of students, regardless of what year they are when the QEP begins. Second, for students, who take both the entry level and upper level service learning courses, it will provide a continuum of reflection and community based application throughout their major courses.
B. Faculty Development: training, resources, and incentives to support the introduction and implementation of service learning into current courses. Training will be provided by our Faculty Service Learning Fellow, Dr. David Horkott. Resources will cover a wide range from syllabus writing support to connections with outside community partners, this support will be provided from multiple campus areas.
After soliciting general feedback from Faculty, the QEP Research Team was formed in January. The Research team focused on QEP theme ideas that had a direction connection to High Impact Practices. The team identified three High Impact Practices in place at PBA that were not yet at the level of best practices. The three High Impact Practices were: 1) Academic Support, 2) Undergraduate Research, and 3) Service Learning. Relevant faculty and staff from all three areas gave presentations to the QEP Research Team. The team used a rubric to evaluate each proposal. Service Learning was chosen as the QEP Focus and approved by the SACSCOC Leadership Team. The QEP Design Team was then formed to provide a more detailed theme and design learning objectives. A Town Hall informational session was held in the spring of 2017 to present and answer questions on the QEP theme. The President of the University also presented the theme again to faculty and staff during a State of the University address in Fall of 2017. The QEP theme is being introduced through both formal meetings, work of committee members, word of mouth, and promotional items.
Critical Reflection Assessment: The success of the QEP will be measured through starting, midpoint, and endpoint assessments in the areas of intellectual, character, and spiritual development through critical reflection. The assessment method for capturing development through critical reflection will be accomplished using holistic scoring by both course instructors and a group of trained instructors. To provide examples for assessment, students will write critical reflections (based on uniform prompts and instructions) that will be scored holistically at each point of reflection, prior to, during, and after completion of the service learning activity.
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Pre-implementation Year (2017-2018): |
Train first group of QEP implementers Publicize the QEP |
| Year One (2018-2019): |
Train additional QEP instructors Offer first QEP-enriched courses Administer first set of assessments in programs 1-3 |
| Year Two (2019-2020): |
Offer QEP-enriched courses Administer assessments in programs 1-3 and 4-6 Train additional QEP instructors |
| Year Three (2020-2021): |
Offer QEP-enriched courses Administer assessments in programs 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9 Train additional QEP instructors |
| Year Four (2021-2022): |
Offer QEP-enriched courses Administer assessments in programs 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12 |
| Year Five (2022-2023): | Same as Year Four |
