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The QEP Impact ReportProducing It Efficiently and Effectively

SACSCOC 13th Annual Institute on Quality Enhancement and Accreditation

Austin, Texas, July 2017

Fred Kniss, Provost

Plan for Workshop

• Intro and Case Study• Essential Components of the Impact

Report– Workshopping them

• Helpful hints• Q&A

EMU Basic Facts• Located in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, in

Harrisonburg• Founded in 1917, rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite

tradition• Differentiators: peacebuilding, social justice, cross-cultural

engagement, and sustainability• Approximately 1,800 students: 950 traditional

undergraduate plus another 850 in professional studies, seminary and graduate programs

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Impact Report Overview• 10 pages or less all-inclusive

• Four key components– Succinct list of initial goals and intended outcomes– Discussion of changes made to QEP with reasons

– Description of impact on student learning or environment supporting student learning

• Achievement of identified goals, and discussion of unanticipated outcomes

– Reflection on what institution has learned in the process

• Review by Committee on Fifth-Year Interim Reports– Accept with comment– Refer to C&R for review (Committee on Compliance and Reports)

Component 1: Succinct list of initial goals and intended outcomes

• Assumes measurable goals and outcomes!• What did the QEP hope to achieve, and

why was it significant for your institution?– Connect to history, mission, and institutional

identity– Address the “so what?” question, giving the

reader some context

Workshop: Component One

• Take three minutes to jot down one sentence for each:– Name one of your QEP goals or learning

outcomes.– How is it significant for your students’

experience?– How is it significant for your institution?

• Roundtable discussion for five minutes

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Component 2: Changes made to QEP with reasons

• SACSCOC recognizes that a QEP is a work in progress. Adaptation is to be expected.

• Where were the “fits and starts” or “hiccups?”• Where did the plan run into resistance?• How might the institutional context have shifted

during the five years?• How did you adapt?

Component 3: Impact on student learning and/or environment

• Consider where your QEP connects with student learning

• Consider what constitutes “the environment supporting student learning” on your campus relevant to QEP goals.

• Which of the goals did you achieve?• What assessment tools and methods did you use?• What did your assessment show?• Were there any unanticipated outcomes?

Workshop: Components Two and Three

• For the goal you identified in Component One:– Did anything change mid-stream, or do you anticipate any

changes?

– How will you explain the change and the way you adapted?

– How are you assessing achievement of the goal or outcome?

– What data are you collecting now that will be helpful in describing its impact?

– Are there any related unanticipated consequences?

• Take ten minutes to discuss

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Component 4: What the institution has learned

• QEPs should involve reflective practice– Practice-reflection-practice iterative process

• Be forthright about what you learned about your institution

• Explain the significance of lessons learned

Helpful Hints• Design for success

– Clearly articulated measurable goals and outcomes

– Implementation team or steering committee that includes key stakeholders and opinion leaders

– Appropriate load time for director and staff support– Regular and ongoing assessment with annual reports to relevant internal

audiences

• Follow instructions! (Good help on SACSCOC website.)

• Don’t over-document– Allot specific page lengths to each section, and focus on clear and coherent

narrative presentation of material

– No data dumps

• Use the SACSCOC resource room to peruse other impact reports from similar institutions

Workshop: What have you learned?

• Identify one take-away from today’s session and conversations.

• What do you want to discuss during Q&A?