Topic Identification

Steering Committee

The process of identifying a Quality Enhancement Plan topic involved segments of the entire TAMU-CC community and began in Spring 2018 with the formation of the QEP Steering Committee. Membership of the QEP Steering Committee, which was chaired by the University’s SACSCOC Liaison, included one faculty representative from each of the five academic colleges, a faculty representative from the Library, a staff representative from Enrollment Management, a staff representative from the Center for Academic Student Achievement, three staff representatives from the Division of Student Engagement and Success, two student representatives, and the Associate Vice President for Planning and Institutional Research. The committee was charged with “identifying a [QEP] topic that has broad-based support of institutional constituencies and that is derived from the University’s ongoing comprehensive planning and evaluation processes.”

Topic Selection

In April and May 2018, each representative from the QEP Steering Committee attended their respective unit’s faculty/staff meeting, Student Government Association and Staff Council meetings to explain the purpose of a QEP, solicit ideas for potential QEP topics, and direct their colleagues to the newly created QEP website. The website included additional information about QEPs, example QEPs, and links to reports containing institutional data and housed a submission portal for topic ideas for the University’s QEP. The committee chair held similar meetings with Staff Council and the Student Government Association. The University’s Alumni Association also marketed the QEP website and solicited topic ideas from TAMU-CC alumni. The topic submission portal was open through the first week of September 2018. Overall, 44 topic ideas were submitted to the Committee. These were categorized into themes with the following five themes receiving the most submissions.

Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, Communication, Emotional and Social Support for Students, Information and Digital Literacy, and Teamwork/Collaborative Learning

In August 2018, the QEP Steering Committee created a QEP abbreviated proposal template that was uploaded onto the QEP website and shared with the campus community. The campus community was invited to two open forums held in September and October of 2018. The forums offered discussion of the QEP process, institutional data, and possible topics as well as the opportunity for individuals to present their QEP topics. Three abbreviated proposals were submitted to the QEP Steering Committee with the following topics being covered:

  • Information and Digital Literacy
  • Global Islanders
  • Emotional Intellegence

From November 27 – December 7 of 2018, members of the campus community had the opportunity to review the proposals and vote for their preferred topic. Respondents also had the option of providing feedback for the proposals. There were 359 total responses with Information and Digital Literacy being the clear favorite among respondents. In addition to considering voting results and feedback, the QEP Steering Committee utilized an evaluation rubric to evaluate the three abbreviated proposals. Committee members met on December 12 to discuss individual scores for each proposal and any comments or concerns they had with each. The Committee decided to recommend to the President that the University’s next QEP be on Information and Digital Literacy.