Go Beyond the Classroom - QEP

What is a QEP?

Go Beyond the Classroom: Community-Engaged Learning, ETSU's Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), is an integral part of ETSU’s reaffirmation and accreditation process with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The current QEP topic was approved by the ETSU University Council in December 2021 and will be implemented across a five-year period.

A successful QEP will:

    • Be a topic identified through on-going institutional assessment and planning.
    • Focus on learning outcomes and/or the environment supporting student learning and accomplishing the mission of the institution.
    • Demonstrate institutional capability for the institution to successfully implement and complete the QEP.
    • Include broad-based involvement of institutional constituencies in the development and proposed implementation of the QEP.
    • Identify a plan for assessing student learning achievements.

 

Why Community-Engaged Learning?

One of the pillars of ETSU’s Strategic Plan is that the institution will lead the region forward through community engagement and service.

Community-engaged learning is the integration of academic coursework and intentional community partnerships that fosters student reflection and application of classroom learning. It will build upon ETSU’s long-standing mission of improving the quality of life of others through regional stewardship and elevate the institution’s impact in community engagement.

QEP - Goals, SLO's, and Student Success

Definition: Community-engaged learning is a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities for reflection designed to achieve desired learning outcomes. (Jacoby, 2015)

QEP Goals


  1. Provide infrastructure and resources for student leaders, faculty and staff, and community partners to support long-term success for community-engaged learning.

  2. Expand student involvement in community-engaged learning opportunities across the undergraduate curricular and co-curricular experiences.

  3. Describe the impact of student involvement in community-engaged learning on student outcomes for various student populations (target populations: Pell recipients, male students, and underserved students).

QEP Student Learning Outcomes


  1. (Connecting): Students will make meaningful connections between their community-engaged learning experiences and academic course content

  2. (Influencing): Students will critically reflect on how community-engaged learning influences their future aspirations.

  3. (Contributing): Students will articulate how community-engaged learning prepares them to make productive contributions in a diverse society.

QEP Student Success Outcomes


The Student Success Outcomes for Go Beyond the Classroom will impact two of ETSU’s goals and outcomes for student achievement as required by SACSCOC Core Requirement 8.1: Student achievement: 

  1. ETSU aspires to retain 85 percent of first-time, full-time degree-seeking undergraduate students from fall-to-fall, and

  2. ETSU aspires to graduate 60 percent of all incoming degree-seeking undergraduate students within eight years as reported in the IPEDS 8 Year Outcomes measures.