If there’s one thing Associate Dean for Instructional Innovation Kelly Hogan wants students and faculty to know, it’s that the Quality Enhancement Plan is for everyone.
The QEP is a five-year initiative implemented as part of the 2017 Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges’ accreditation process. The initiative promotes experiential learning in its theme of “Learning by Connecting, Doing and Making.”
Hogan stresses that the QEP is inclusive of all disciplines.
The QEP consists of four programs that build on undergraduate student research and collaboration:
- Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE)
- Integrated Curricula
- Makerspace
- Research Exposure Opportunities
“Underlying these courses is how students learn the value of collaboration in research and making and communicating these ideas to others,” said Hogan, who is also director of the QEP.
“Because the QEP is about experimentation in the curriculum, these courses and the associated student learning outcomes provide the foundation for discussion of the proposed new general education curriculum. We already have a roadmap, as well as students and faculty providing perspective on the value of implementing a more experiential and interdisciplinary general education curriculum.”
The QEP’s programs engage all of the College of Arts & Sciences’ divisions. Integrated curricula courses in particular pair faculty in the arts and humanities with those in the natural or social sciences to look at issues from different perspectives. Each semester, the QEP Expo hosts students from all of the programs, giving them opportunities to present their research. The next Expo is December 4, in the Student Union.
Learn more about the variety of disciplines and courses involved in the QEP at qep.unc.edu.
Video by Kristen Chavez ’13
