QEP Proposal Summaries

Top 4

March 2010

For complete proposals, visit http://novaqep1.blogspot.com

Citizenship Across the Curriculum

We, in America, take pride in calling ourselves the greatest democracy in the world. And yet, barely half of us bother to go the polls on Election Day even in presidential years. For local elections, we are fortunate if one in ten eligible voters turns out. Few Americans have even more than a superficial understanding of the great issues confronting our country and the world. Popular frustration with our inability to influence the direction of the government, which acts in our name, grows daily.  Only ten percent of Americans know the name of the person who represents them in Congress, and fewer still know the name of their state senator, delegate, or council member. Only one percent can recall how their elected representatives voted on even one measure. How can we hold our leaders accountable under such circumstance?

Also, right now, medical care, and the environment weigh heavily on the discussions in our communities today.  It is important for our students to be comfortable with the vocabulary, the science, the business, and the political implications of such discussions.

         Through college and classroom activities, students will be able to improve their communication, critical thinking, social understanding, information literacy, and quantitative reasoning skills.  In addition, students will improve active and collaborative learning, student effort, academic challenge, and student-faculty interaction.

Major components:

·   Focus on political, social, and economic issues in a regular series of speakers and classroom activities

·   Integrate discussions and problem solving

·   Incorporate internships and service learning

·   Include forums tied to elections

·   Enhance student government

Early Academic Engagement Program

The Early Academic Engagement (EAE) program will transform student learning by helping to prepare students for college success during the critical first semester at NOVA.  A premise of this program is that many students who enter NOVA are under-prepared in both academic and non-academic areas.   They are unclear about the appropriate courses to take for success and require support beyond what is offered in their classes. NOVA faculty and students identify the following as major barriers to success: students’ lack of information about policies, procedures and resources at NOVA; unclear expectations about the requirements for college success; unclear personal academic goals; poor study skills; and poorly developed critical thinking skills. (AtD focus group data).

Students participating in the Early Academic Engagement program will be provided with specialized support in making the transition from high school to college by receiving advising prior to registration for fall and spring semesters and being required to meet with an advisor/mentor during their first semester in college.  Meetings with advisor/mentors will help students develop a connection to the college, important for college persistence and success.  Students will learn NOVA policies and procedures and gain a clear understanding of college-level academic expectations.    Additionally, interactions between mentors and mentees will support appropriate goal-setting and development of plans for the future, encourage personal responsibility for academic performance and provide encouragement for students. 

The Early Academic Engagement program will be available to full-time enrollees who are first-time degree-seeking students entering from high school.  This group has been identified by NOVA’S Achieving the Dream initiative as a vulnerable group, with high rates of placement into developmental courses and a relatively low rate of academic success at the college.  

Major components:

·   English and math placement exams given before registration

·   Faculty advisor/mentor assigned before fall registration

·   Student success coaches

·   Identified courses for first year students

·   Outreach: The Early Academic Engagement program will be promoted in high schools and the community as a program developed to smooth the transition to college and increase the likelihood of academic success.

Enhanced Academic Advising

Academic advising is the key to achieving the college’s Personal Development general education goal. The VCCS defines academic advising as a program which assists students in the evaluation and attainment of their academic, career, and personal goals. Students who participate in comprehensive academic advising will be able to understand campus and college resources and develop the skills necessary to make informed, independent decisions.

The Enhanced Academic Advising program is intended for new students, but its benefits will eventually have an effect on the advising of all students at NOVA.  By using Targeted Advising, Guided Program Placement, Improved Faculty Advising, and an Early Warning System, students will improve their information literacy skills (in terms of college resources) and personal development skills, which are both NOVA general education goals.

Major components:

·         Faculty Advising:  Improving the counselor/advisor / faculty-advisor relationship and the faculty-advisor’s role.  Improve communication between students and faculty.

·         Guided Program Placement:   Students receive guidance before making a decision about program placement.

·         Targeted Advising:  Focus on needy populations (developmental, transfer, career-technical, international, recent high school graduates, ELI).

·         Early Warning System:  Better communication and advising of students placed on academic warning or probation.   Students who are placed on academic probation or warning will receive comprehensive advising and counseling to get back on track in terms of academic performance.  Through the use of a specialized SDV section, one-on-one counseling, and peer mentoring, these students will learn the skills needed to persist and succeed.

Increasing Math and Science Literacy for Non-Majors

Two key general education goals for all NOVA students graduating with an Associate’s degree are Quantitative Reasoning and Scientific Reasoning. These educational goals also ensure that NOVA graduates are literate in math and science. Scientific literacy is an important component of NOVA's institutional goal that states that NOVA graduates need to be adequately prepared to enter Northern Virginia’s highly-skilled, technology-based workforce (Strategic Vision 2015).

In order to promote mathematical and scientific literacy and to increase the success rate of non-STEM majors, the NOVA Faculty Learning Community (FLC) would like to propose that NOVA create, pilot, and implement a lab course designed specifically for non-majors. This course would be designed to be interdisciplinary, not only pulling from different scientific disciplines but also studying science in the context of collecting and analyzing quantitative data. After developing and piloting this course, the interdisciplinary lab course will be linked with MTH 151 in a learning community for non-majors in an effort to increase their overall success in these courses. NAS 101 Natural Science I might be adapted as the appropriate course to include more topics such as nanotechnology, water quality, cancer, cloning, or global climate change.

Major components:

·         Phase I: Course Development

o   An interdisciplinary lab course around a “hot topic” such as nanotechnology, water quality, cancer, cloning, or global climate change.

·         Phase II: Piloting the course

·         Phase III: Inclusion of course into a student learning community.

o   A learning community for non-STEM majors will be developed where students would be co-enrolled in the newly-developed science lab course as well as MTH 151: Mathematics for Liberal Arts. They may also be co-enrolled in an accompanying SDV course.

o   In order to connect this topic to the real world even further, other disciplines such as ethics, business, etc. will be incorporated to make this experience even more meaningful. These disciplines could be incorporated through a variety of means such as in an accompanying SDV course or a 1-credit seminar course.

·         Phase IV: Expansion to College-wide STEM initiative

o   The learning community will become part of the First Year Experience and/or Pathway to the Baccalaureate, where a significant number of freshmen enroll in these courses as a cohort.

o   Because this effort will require the coordination of several college initiatives (Achieving the Dream, Pathway, STEM FLC), the college will be prepared to broaden their efforts at enhancing the success of STEM majors and developing initiatives to partner with local high schools and transfer institutions.