CONNECT 360: The Eagle Experience - Our Campus Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)
What is a QEP?
A Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) is a focused set of special educational initiatives implemented by an institution of higher learning across its campus(s) to improve student learning. While a QEP is required for university accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS-COC) it enables the faculty and administration to pause and assess what will make their students more successful in the marketplace or in advanced study in the present era. The topic of emphasis is selected by the faculty in collaboration with the administration and engages feedback from the community as well. A QEP is designed to specifically address a contemporary need of college graduates, promoting greater success for them as they graduate and pursue professional goals.
Our QEP – CONNECT 360: The Eagle Experience
CONNECT 360 refers to inspiring students to connect the theory of a discipline and course content to real-world problems and needs. We want students to extend their academic knowledge and skills beyond the classroom through experiential learning (EL). This initiative was planned by faculty, staff, and external stakeholders in 2015-2016 and initiated formally as a robust five-year program throughout the campus in fall 2017. EL is considered a high-impact practice (HIP) within higher education today because it has such a strong, positive impact on student learning and student persistence in college; in addition, the use of HIPs tend to produce the types of skills employers need and want in contemporary college graduates. TAMU-T focuses on the following six forms of EL:
| Internships | Service Learning |
| Problem-Based Learning | International Studies/Study Abroad |
| Undergraduate Research | Capstone Projects/Field Work |
Our Primary Goals for CONNECT 360:
- All undergraduate students will have the opportunity to participate in a course with a strong experiential learning component.
- Modify the institutional teaching culture toward greater use of experiential learning and other high-impact practices
- Engage with more community partners so that our students develop professional networks and experience possible career contexts first-hand.
How Can a Student Enroll in an EL Course?
Our campus designates certain courses in the academic disciplines (majors and minors) as Experiential Learning (EL) or Service Learning (SL); those courses are noted in the course schedule as EL or SL each time they are offered. Students may register for those courses in the same manner as any other course. Some courses are restricted to specific majors while others are open to all students who meet the pre-requisite, if any apply.
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