Quality Enhancement Plan
What is a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)?
A Quality Enhancement Plan is one of many requirements for our accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The requirement is that institutions identify a key issue for improvement that focuses on student learning and accomplishing the mission of the school. A QEP needs to have broad-based involvement from the campus community is the development and implementation of the plan. We need to identify clear goals and a plan to assess their achievement. We also need to demonstrate that we have the capacity to initiate, implement, and complete the plan.
Our plan is called “Tell Your Story: Communication Skills for the Artist.” We have identified a set of specific communication skills that we would like all UNCSA students to develop.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
Clearly communicate passion for their professional career.
Passion, as we have defined through our research, is much more than a powerful emotion. It is the driving force that motivates artists to pursue their career. Communicating this to others can take many forms including short biographies, grant proposals, interviews, elevator pitches, portfolio reviews, auditions, artist statements, and more. These forms can be both written and verbal. To succeed, artists must communicate with clarity and passion what motives them, guides their artistic choices, and sets their work apart from others.
Effectively critique their own work.
In order to succeed professionally, artists must be able to question, challenge, and evaluate their work. The creative process is iterative and requires ongoing refinement and improvement. Artists need to be able to clearly identify their intentions, objectively evaluate how well their work fulfills their intentions, and implement actions to improve the work based on these observations.
Effectively critique the work of others.
The performing arts are collaborative in nature. Just as artists must continually engage in self-critique, they must also be skilled in critiquing the work of their peers, mentors, and collaborators. Doing this effectively involves being able to place the work within an appropriate context, being invested in the success of the artist and his or her work, and being balanced in the feedback they provide.
Read the current draft of the assessment rubrics for these learning outcomes.
ASSESSMENT RUBRICS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Goals of the QEP
- Implement a clear plan for developing specific communication skills in our students.
- Conduct a campus-wide assessment of common evaluative criteria.
How you can participate
Faculty
- Read the full proposal below
- Watch the training videos on the Canvas QEP training course
- Use the Aqua website to conduct one round of assessments with your students each semester in one or more of the QEP learning outcomes
Students
- Read the full proposal below
- Watch the introductory video above to become familiar with the work we've done so far implementing the proposed plan
- Become familiar with the QEP learning outcomes and the assessment rubrics above
- Look for opportunities to develop and practice these skills in your work at UNCSA and the profession
Please contact our QEP Director, Jason Romney, at romneyj@uncsa.edu to offer your input and help or to ask questions.