Quality Enhancement Plan
Executive Summary
CVCC's QEP is titled Enhancement of Online Education at CVCC and it focuses on the
College's online courses. More specifically, the QEP represents the institution�s goal of
ensuring all aspects of online distance education are of the highest quality. These
aspects include incorporating the latest developments in pedagogy and technology,
articulating and refining the process of course development and assessment, providing
requisite professional development for the affected faculty and staff, and incorporating
all associated student services into the online environment. The ultimate goal is for a
student to be able to complete at least two associate degree programs without having ever
to physically come to the CVCC campus.
The reasons that underlie this QEP are several. First, online courses are a natural
outgrowth of the CVCC Mission. The College exists to provide "accessible comprehensive,
public, two-year higher education." Online courses increase the accessibility of the
College's classes and programs. Additionally, online courses are an integral part of the
Twenty-Year Vision of Central Virginia Community College, the document which
explains where the College would like to be two decades hence.
Secondly, online courses represent a continuation and natural progression of CVCC's
distance education program. The College began offering print-based home-study courses
twenty years ago, so online courses represent a logical continuation of this aspect of
course delivery.
Thirdly, the development of online courses is off to a good beginning with over 50
courses offered along with two degrees. However, the student assessment shows student
satisfaction of online courses significantly lower than of traditionally taught courses,
indicating a need for the work outlined in the QEP.
Fourthly, online courses may provide discoveries and practices that can enhance the
courses taught using traditional methods at the college. This could be beneficial to the
students involved in the teaching-learning process on campus.
Lastly, the efforts involved in realizing the QEP involve personnel from across the
College including administrators who oversee programs and their development, faculty who
teach the classes, students who take the classes, and staff who provide technical support
in IT and student services support in all the associated areas from the bookstore to
counseling, to financial aid, and to admissions and records.
This Quality Enhancement Plan involves thirteen separate goals and forty-nine related
objectives that are scheduled to be accomplished over the next five years. These are
presented both in a concise chart and through a narrative discussion. Also included are
the persons responsible for each goal and objective, the means by which each will be
assessed, any associated costs, and all funding sources. The College has committed $500,000
over a five-year period to support the activities outlined in the QEP.
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