2016-17 Reaffirmation of Accreditation
The Open Pathway model requires an institution to designate one major improvement effort it has undertaken as a Quality Initiative for reaffirmation of accreditation.
UNL’s Quality Initiative, Implementing and Assessing the ACE 10 Outcome: Exploring Learning and Career Preparation within the Undergraduate Major, is a two-year project designed to engage faculty and staff in conversations about the quality of learning and career development opportunities within undergraduate degree programs.
ACE 10 courses require students to “generate a creative or scholarly product that requires broad knowledge, appropriate technical proficiency, information collection, synthesis, interpretation, presentation, and reflection.”
Deeply examining what students are learning within ACE 10 courses while simultaneously exploring their opportunities for career development within majors will enable UNL to gain a holistic picture of how its undergraduate degree programs are preparing students for career success.
Year One, 2013-2014
ACE 10 Faculty Inquiry
Faculty selected from across all undergraduate colleges explored methods for assessing work produced in ACE 10 courses and participated in a collegial community around ACE 10 assessment. They focused their discussions on the following questions:
- How does your analysis of collected student work from ACE 10 courses demonstrate that students are meeting the outcome?
- What does your analysis of students’ work tell you about how students are prepared more generally within your degree program?
- What best practices and structures for ACE 10 assessment could be shared across units for the improvement of teaching and learning?
Year One Participants
- Alan Baquet
Director, PGA Golf Management - Beth Theiss-Morse
Professor, Political Science - Cal Garbin
Weaver Professor, Psychology - Christopher Marks
Associate Professor, Music - Dave Gosselin
Associate Professor, Natural Resources - Dave Lambe
Associate Professor of Practice, Agronomy & Horticulture - David Karle
Assistant Professor, Architecture - Ed Harris
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry - Emie Yiannaka
Associate Professor, Agricultural Economics - Frauke Hachtmann
Professor and Sequence Head, Advertising - Guy Trainin
Associate Professor, Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Education - Jerry Renaud
Professor and Sequence Head, Broadcasting - Jifeng Yu
Assistant Professor, Management - Linda Young
Associate Professor of Practice, Nutrition & Health Sciences - Mark Griep
Associate Professor, Chemistry - Melissa Homestead
Professor, English - Petronela Radu
Associate Professor, Mathematics - Ron Lee
Professor, Communication Studies - Scott Fuess
Professor and Chair, Economics - Sohrab Asgarpoor
Professor, Electrical Engineering - Sue Kemp
Associate Professor of Practice, Special Education & Communication Disorders - Sue Vagts
Associate Professor of Practice, Finance
Director, Actuarial Science - Tom Weissling
Associate Professor, Entomology - Yasar Demirel
Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering - Amy Goodburn
Professor, English
Associate Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs
Facilitator - Nancy Mitchell
Professor, Advertising
Director, Undergraduate Education Programs
Facilitator
Year Two, 2014-2015
Career Exploration and Development
Faculty and staff across all UNL colleges engaged in monthly conversations about how curriculum, advising and mentoring within each undergraduate major prepared students for academic and career success. Discussions were driven by the following questions:
- What can we learn about how majors prepare students to meaningfully apply what they learned for their careers?
- What are the career preparation components of our curriculum, advising, and mentoring within each major?
- What best practices and structures for career exploration and development could be shared across units and what post-graduation outcomes could be used to measure institutional success in providing them?
Year Two Participants
- Andrea McClintic
Associate Director, Career Services - AnnMarie Gottner
Director of Advising, College of Education & Human Sciences - Ben Heinisch
Academic Advisor, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources - Betsy Gabb
Program Director and Professor, Interior Design - Cal Garbin
Weaver Professor, Psychology - Chris Timm
Associate Director, Career Services - Christina Fielder
Director, College of Arts & Sciences Academic and Career Advising Center - Christy Aggens
Multimedia Designer and Student Services Coordinator, Art & Art History - Deborah Bathke
Assistant Professor of Practice, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences - Debra Cosgrove
Associate Professor of Practice, Accountancy - Diana Pilson
Associate Professor, Biological Sciences
Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences - Emily Wilber
Assistant Director, Career Services - Jaci Gustafson
Coordinator of Pre-Professional Advising Services, Exploratory & Pre-Professional Advising Center - Jeannine Berge
Associate Director for Employer Experience & Outreach, College of Business Administration - Julie Obermeyer
Director of Career Development/Corporate Relations, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources - Karen Stelling
Professor of Practice, Mechanical & Materials Engineering - Kathy Phillips
Associate Professor of Practice, Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Education - Katie Sewell
Career Coach, College of Business Administration - Marilyn Schnepf
Professor, Nutrition & Health Sciences - Mark Burbach
Teaching Coordinator, Natural Resources - Mary Kay Quinlan
Associate Professor and Academic Advisor, News Editorial - Michael Goff
Professor of Practice, Advertising
Advising Coordinator, College of Journalism & Mass Communications - Regina Werum
Professor, Sociology - Scott Swenseth
Associate Professor, Management - Sharon Teo-Gooding
Associate Professor, Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film - Sherri Jones
Professor and Chair, Special Education & Communication Disorders - Shinya Takahashi
Assistant Professor of Practice, Nutrition & Health Sciences - Stacy Dam
Academic Advisor, College of Journalism & Mass Communications - Stephanie Kuenning
Student Success Coordinator, College of Architecture - Sue Bullard
Associate Professor, News Editorial - Sue Vagts
Associate Professor of Practice, Finance
Director, Actuarial Science - Thomas Allison
Senior Career Advisor, Career Services - Tom Lynch
Professor, English - William Lopez
Associate Professor of Practice, Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Education - Amy Goodburn
Professor, English
Associate Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs
Facilitator - Bill Watts
Director, University Advising and Career Services
Facilitator
Final Report
A report on UNL’s Quality Initiative was submitted to the HLC in August 2015.
Overall, UNL’s Quality Initiative focused campus attention on building more intentional, systematic, and transparent structures for facilitating undergraduates’ career development within and outside of academic coursework. Specific outcomes in each year of the Quality Initiative project included the following:
In 2013-14
- Faculty participants showcased assessment of student learning in ACE 10 courses via posters at the annual campuswide research fair.
- Participants identified a campus need for an assessment system that could collect, aggregate, and report data on shared rubrics for each ACE outcome. Such a system was purchased in June 2015 (TK20) and is being implemented fall 2015 via faculty-led groups for each ACE outcome.
In 2014-15
- Participants created university-wide recommendations to enhance career development and collect post-graduation outcomes that were shared at an academic leaders’ workshop and disseminated on the QI webpage.
- Faculty participants created strategic plans to conduct a 5-year review of the ACE program and design and report institutional measures for undergraduates’ career goal attainment.
- UNL implemented an online graduating senior survey to capture student employment post-graduation data and perceptions of academic experiences.
- Academic Affairs distributed small grants to support departmental career activities.