Process Used to Develop the QEP

The topic for our new QEP was identified through an ongoing, comprehensive planning and evaluation processes. Through focus groups, synthesis of potential topics, creation of a QEP Steering Committee, and an institutional survey, the theme of “Enhancing the Use of Evidence” was selected for the Parker University QEP.

The following measures were part of the QEP development process.

• Annual Assessment Measures
  • Student Satisfaction Survey Results
  • Employee Satisfaction Survey Results
  • Course Evaluations
• Strategic Plan
• QEP Committees
• Focus Groups
• Institutional Survey

Based on this data, the following topics emerged as finalists for the QEP topic.

• Enhancing the Use of Evidence: Searching for references, such as peer reviewed literature, to substantiate answers to topics or scenarios.
• Health and Wellness: This broad topic encompasses strategies utilized for making better health-related decisions.
• Learning and Knowledge Retention: The focus of this theme is getting students to participate in higher order thinking skills instead of the lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy that concerns basic remembering and understanding.
• Patient-Centered Care: Treating patients in a manner that centers them in their treatment and care plans.

QEP Topic Identification

Of the top four potential topics identified, the QEP Executive Committee considered their universality to all programs and relationship to student learning.

• The committee felt the "patient-centric" and "health and wellness" themes did not relate fairly nor adequately apply to all programs (College of Business and Technology, as one example), but could be incorporated in the QEP through another theme.
• The theme, “Learning and Knowledge Retention” related to all academic programs and student learning. However, given the vagueness of topic and the essence of any QEP to address student learning, the committee chose to apply the concept of learning and knowledge retention to the selected QEP topic.

The remaining topic, “Enhancing the Use of Evidence” remained the final topic recommended for the QEP.