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.