Officials at Mississippi State University have begun the brainstorming process for the new Quality Enhancement Plan, a five-year plan to improve student learning at MSU.
Connie Forde, QEP co-chairperson, said the QEP is a required part of the reaffirmation of MSU’s Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation.
She said one way MSU creates the QEP is by conducting listening sessions with faculty, students and staff.
“The purpose is to hear ideas about how undergraduate student learning can be improved,” Forde said. “How can we be better related to undergraduate student learning.”
QEP co-chairperson Angi Bourgeois said the committee is also looking for what MSU does well to use as examples for improvement.
“We ask students what is the best thing about your educational experience at MSU,” she said. “Because when we learn what we do very well, we might be able to figure out how to do other things that well.”
Bourgeois said MSU is required to include broad-based participation, which the QEP committee interpreted to include anyone who is a stakeholder in MSU’s education, including alumni and future employers.
She said because of this interpretation, the committee is also conducting listening sessions with alumni, advisory boards and employers who participate in the MSU career days for opinions on the education MSU graduates received.
 
 
 
“They are seeing our students as they walk out the door and giving us feedback on areas that … might enhance or improve our education,” Bourgeois said.
She said students can attend any of the listening sessions, and student organizations or groups can contact the committee to attempt to schedule a listening session.
Forde said the QEP committee also has a virtual suggestion box on the QEP website, which will be available until Feb. 10.
According to the QEP website, students need their netIDs and passwords to access the system, but suggestions will remain anonymous.
Rhett Hobart, Student Association president, said it is important for students to be involved in the creation of QEP.
“Student feedback is essential in the QEP process to ensure that the best possible plan is implemented to better the educational experience at MSU,” he said.
Bourgeois said when the committee completes the listening sessions in mid-February, a QEP survey will be sent to students via email to rate the top-10 to-15 topics of improvement. She said she hopes the results of this survey will narrow the topics to three main concerns for MSU student learning.
Forde said the committee will create a plan from those topics that will be in place for five years beginning in fall 2014.
“After the plan is developed, it will be implemented through a five-year implementation and then a report written about what we accomplished through this project,” she said.
Forde said although this is MSU’s first QEP, it is not the first university to create a QEP.
“The QEP is new, and it’s just our turn to do it. Other universities have done them because of their time frame in the accreditation process is earlier than ours,” Forde said. “Every reaffirmation there will be a new QEP, and this should be an ongoing process for accreditation.”