Actions

Kentucky Wesleyan’s WE – Writing through Engagement QEP has two overarching goals:

  1.   Improve Student Writing through Engagement and
  2.   Prepare Students to Achieve Success in Life

Several institutional actions will be necessary to implement the QEP. Steps required have been identified in the areas of finalizing documents, materials, and processes; faculty development/training; student support and training; marketing; and implementation.

Finalizing documents and processes:
Fall 2017 will be used as a time for finalizing new forms, materials, and processes. All work will be complete by October 2017 so faculty are ready to advise students for spring 2018 (see pilot below).

Documents and materials:
Several documents and materials need to be finalized or created to implement the QEP, among them:

  • Edit the existing Internship and Directed Research proposal forms to include more input from the student (In process, drafts are ready to put before the Internship Subcommittee in the fall for review and approval.)
  • Create and publish internship and service-learning orientation materials to be used in preparing students for their experience. Materials will be added to the application forms to cover this during the pilot semester.
  • Create supervisor orientation materials to be provided to hosts detailing expectations, deadlines, and official contact information in support of their role.
  • Approve the standard minimum requirements concerning student journaling and final writing outcomes to ensure all divisions that offer academic internships or service-learning have similar time commitments and work expectations.
  • Finalize the writing prompts to be used by faculty so writing feedback will occur and student writing will improve. The first writing prompts will be used at the mid-point to encourage the student to critically reflect on what has happened so far and how they will proceed. The second writing prompt will be used to encourage critical reflection over the entirety of their internship or service-learning experience.
  • Finalize the Internship Evaluation rubric that will assist faculty to evaluate the experience, journals, and final paper created by all students completing an academic internship.
  •  Prepare faculty training materials that will be made available in an online Faculty Resource Center through Brightspace, the College’s learning management system.
  • Develop Brightspace courses for submission of writing assignments and evaluations.
  • Develop an electronic version of the Supervisor’s Evaluation form for off-campus supervisors to be able to easily complete assessment of student job behaviors. The form must be able to be returned electronically to the on-campus faculty supervisor (mid-and final evaluations) and a central repository for the Assessment Coordinator (final evaluation only).
  • Develop an electronic version of the WE-Experience post survey and have it electronically returned to a central repository for the Assessment Coordinator.

Processes:
Processes need to be put in place to effectively implement the QEP, among them:

  • Develop the process required for faculty to receive approval for their courses to be designated as a WE-course. This approval process will be necessary to ensure that the student experience across all service-learning courses will be similar. Likewise project-based and problem-based courses will need to be approved as WE-courses.
  • Develop a process/mechanism to designate WE-Experience courses by type, e.g. project-based, problem-based, service-learning, for student registration within CAMS, the college’s student information system, so data can be easily pulled at the end of the term.

Faculty Development and Training

Faculty development and support are a foundational component of the QEP. We will train 75-85% of the full-time faculty within the first two years of the QEP. Training during the remaining years will be conducted as refreshers for faculty who have been trained and as a way to introduce new faculty to WE processes and train them in the evaluation of writing and expectations for all WE-Experiences.

Faculty Development will consist of a series of workshops and a summer institute that will focus on disseminating new/updated processes, evaluating student writing, evaluating WE- Experiences, and helping faculty develop WE-Experiences.

  • Dissemination of New/Updated Processes: Workshops that deal with informing faculty about the processes required for students to register for academic Internships, RSCW, and the process required to have a course approved as a WE-course will occur throughout the QEP timeframe. The first workshop will take place during the August 2017 faculty development workshop.
  • Evaluation of Writing Training Workshop: Faculty development for evaluating student writing using the Writing Evaluation Rubric will take place each semester. Initially, this workshop will use student writing collected during fall 2017, which will be the benchmark term, that shows examples of good writing, average writing, and writing that does not meet standards. Faculty will read multiple writing samples and score them according to the QEP rubric. After each is scored, faculty will discuss how they were scored to ensure consistent use of the rubrics applied to student writing. Appropriate training will be offered to remote online faculty through a similar mechanism using GoTo Meeting or an appropriate technology.
  • Evaluation of WE-Experience Training Workshops: These workshops are WE-Experience-specific and are designed to cover the evaluation of the required student writing as well as the experience. For the writing evaluation component, the process will be the same as for the general writing training listed above but will focus on the writing that is relevant to the specific WE-Experience.
  • WE Summer Institute: – An in-depth, multi-day Institute will be held during early summer each year. Projects designed and developed during the Institute will be submitted for designation as WE-Experiences during the fall semester and implemented during the following spring semester.

    Day one will focus on an overview of the QEP, the WE designation process, and training on the Evaluation of Writing rubric. Day two will be devoted to training faculty in the use of the WE-Experience Evaluation Rubric for service-learning and RSCW. Day three will focus on the WE-Experience Evaluation Rubric for Internships and additional training in designing service-learning, project and problem-based learning projects. Days four and five will be devoted to project work, dedicated time when faculty will work on developing their WE-Experience projects. By the end of the institute, faculty should have a good start on a project/course for the appropriate WE-Experience.

Student Support and Training

Student support will include brief information sessions, workshops, course-based information sessions, a resource center, and a Peer Writing Fellows Program.

  • Brief Information Sessions: These sessions will be designed to inform students of the new forms and processes required to register for an academic Internship or RSCW experience.
    They will occur during the academic year and through electronic communication for online students. These sessions will help prepare students to effectively and efficiently complete registrations for Internships and RSCW experiences.
  • Orientation Workshops: Internships and service-learning experiences will have orientation workshops. These orientations will be available during the fall and spring semesters and will be required for participating students.
  • Workshops for Other Required Training: Some WE-Experiences may require additional training. For example, for service-learning experiences that involve Wesleyan students working with minor children, a “Working with Minors” training will be required. For certain internships involving health records, HIPPA training may be required. These trainings will be offered as needed and may be in-person or online.
  • Course-Based Information Sessions to Introduce Students to the WE-Experience: CETL will offer student introductions to the pedagogical underpinnings associated with WE-Experience when requested by faculty. These workshops will be offered as needed.
  • Student Resource Center: An Online Resource Center will be developed in Brightspace, the College’s learning management system, to house tutorials, training handouts, forms, and other materials related to the QEP. All students will have access to the Center and will be able to find materials at any time.
  • Peer Writing Fellows Program: The Student Success Center will oversee the development of a program where qualified students will serve as writing-focused peer resources. Peer Writing Fellows will be trained to assist others in writing improvement.

Marketing

Internal marketing is needed to raise campus awareness of the program and to build excitement and anticipation as components of the program are phased in. The external marketing campaign will share college success stories and communicate potential opportunities to prospective students and their families.

Internal Marketing Strategies are being planned and/or underway:

  • The Fall Preview sent to the entire campus community during the summer provides information on what’s new for the upcoming fall. The QEP is an item in this summer’s issue.
  • RA and Student Leadership Training begins in August. Approximately 100 (15% of the traditional student population) students will be participating in this training. The QEP will be introduced during training.
  • New students will be introduced to the QEP during fall and winter orientation sessions.
  • The QEP and Logo contest (see below) will be rolled out during the Student Engagement Fair which highlights student organizations the night before classes begin and is open to all students.
  • Logo Selection Contest – several potential Logo’s for the QEP were designed by students last spring and faculty during the summer. The Committee has selected a few which will be presented to the campus community during the first two weeks of the fall term. The campus community will vote to select the QEP logo.
  • Incorporate short presentations into the Sophomore Year Experience and Career Development programming.
  • Develop and launch a radio campaign using the College’s radio station.
  • Produce student testimonials as a means of putting faces to the program. These will be used in the External Marketing campaign to reach prospective students and parents. The College has a similar program called “My Wesleyan Way,” which is an external marketing strategy.

External marketing strategies

  • Use technology to market the QEP – Website/Social Media. Short videos similar to the “My Wesleyan Way” campaign will be developed to share success stories and communicate potential opportunities.
  • The radio campaign will be used to share success stories with the regional community.