In The News
SMU announces its Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)
SMU is answering students' calls for learning opportunities outside the classroom with a new program that will provide both structure and funding for their endeavors.
The University's Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) - "Unbridled Learning: Engaged Learning Beyond the Classroom" - will allow all SMU undergraduate students to participate in at least one extensive experiential learning activity prior to graduation, according to the plan released by SMU's QEP Committee.
The program will allow undergraduates to "build on their formal classroom education through participation in structured experiential learning beyond the classroom, which will help them to develop a significant and sophisticated understanding of the ways in which the context of the world community intersects with disciplinary knowledge," according to the QEP Committee's executive summary.
The QEP will provide opportunities for undergraduate students to choose an out-of-classroom experiential learning activity in the community focus area of their choice:
- Research
- Creative
- Civic
- Professional
QEP experiences will also have specific requirements that may not be satisfied by existing SMU experiential learning activities, according to the committee. A key feature is that each student will be in charge of identifying, defining, completing and reporting on his or her work.
All experiences will be approved by an advisory committee and overseen by SMU faculty with other qualified internal and external mentors. A QEP experience can be undertaken anywhere, but must include extensive involvement with a learning community.
All QEP participants will be required to write a reflective article about their experiences, to be published in a new SMU online journal. In addition, new Undergraduate Engaged Learning Conferences will be held annually to showcase student QEP experiences.
In addition, QEP projects will build on and augment important elements of the new University Curriculum (UC), to be offered beginning in 2012. The program will allow students to pursue the community and global requirements of the UC in more depth.