About our QEP assessment

 

CCC&TI QEP plan uses multiple measures of direct and indirect assessment to evaluate the attainment of specific student learning outcomes and the successful implementation of the plan.

  • Direct measures such as the assessment of student writing in capstone classes and portfolio analysis by a team of trained evaluators will be combined with external measures such as the use of outside evaluators to assess student writing.
  • Indirect means of assessment include the use of student and faculty perception surveys and analysis of writing center usage statistics and faculty referrals.

See also

What the plan is and isn't

As we develop our assessment strategies, we must keep in mind that the topic of this QEP is “Enhancing Writing,” not “Improving Writing Skills.”  In other words, we are not attempting to eradicate all grammar or syntactical errors from student writing within the timeframe of this plan. 

Instead, the focus of this QEP is to

  • emphasize writing across the curriculum,
  • offer focused assistance with writing in a collaborative environment, and
  • provide faculty with professional development opportunities to learn more about the connections between writing, critical thinking, and learning. 

We feel strongly that with this intensive focus on writing, student writing skills will actually improve, but because writing assessment can be very subjective, a variety of strategies must be employed. 

Key to success

The true success of this QEP relies on changes in faculty and student attitudes and perceptions regarding writing.

We acknowledge these sorts of changes often take time to manifest and that direct measurement of these changes will be difficult.  We do not expect immediate changes in attitudes of all faculty members with the implementation of this plan. Instead, we hope to see a gradual increase in the use and quality of discipline-based writing across campus over time that we will measure through the assessments outlined in the QEP Assesment plan.