Geaux Communicate QEP

Effective communication is vital to teaching and learning. This is why, as part of LSU’s Quality Enhancement Plan, the university is expanding its award-winning communication-intensive programming across the campus through the Geaux Communicate initiative. LSU’s goal with this initiative is for all undergraduate students—regardless of their major—to have access to communication-intensive classes and learning support services that will set them up for success, and we will be expanding support for our teaching faculty who will be at the forefront of making this happen. 

Students working in an architecture studio class

Undergraduate Students

Regardless of your major, no matter if this is your first or last semester, and whether you need a little or a lot of support, there are several enhanced and expanded opportunities to help you Geaux Communicate while earning your degree at LSU.

WHAT DOES GEAUX COMMUNICATE MEAN FOR UNDERGRADUATE students?

schedule an appointment with a communication coach


Professor teaching outside in the quad

Undergraduate Teaching Faculty

Whether you've been teaching communication-intensive (C-I) courses for years, you're a newcomer to the high-impact practice, or you aren't sure if C-I is right for your course, Geaux Communicate will provide lots of opportunities and resources to help students develop their communication skills while at LSU.

WHAT DOES GEAUX COMMUNICATE MEAN FOR UNDERGRADUATE teachers?

connect with the CxC representative for your college


Aerial image of LSU's main campus

Geaux Communicate Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Details

LSU is accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). A key part of the reaffirmation of accreditation requires institutions to develop and implement implement a five year Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) to demonstrate their commitment to student learning and success. 

LEARN ABOUT SACSCOC REAFFIRMATION PROCESSES at LSUQEP Teams

Geaux Communicate is Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College’s (LSU A&M) 2024–2029 Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which focuses on advancing the multimodal communication skills of all LSU undergraduates (online and on-campus) by enhancing and expanding Communication-Intensive
(C-I) teaching and learning.

Communication-Intensive (C-I) pedagogy is a high-impact teaching approach that integrates course-based subject matter with communication-based activities, simultaneously deepening students’ content learning and advancing their communication skills. This contemporary pedagogy originated as part of LSU’s inaugural QEP (2004-2009), and 15 years of longitudinal data show C-I Courses positively influence undergraduate student learning and overall success from matriculation to graduation, confirming its efficacy
as a high-impact teaching and learning practice (HIP) at LSU.

Communication skills are essential for all disciplines, fields, industries, and job roles, making this topic relevant to all majors and a vital component of college teaching, student learning, and post-graduation success. Advancing students’ multimodal communication skills has become an institutional priority as demonstrated in LSU’s general education program, which includes proficiencies in written and oral communication skills. Additionally, employing relevant HIPs is a focus of the Louisiana Board of Regents’ new agenda to advance
student success inside the classroom and beyond.

The Geaux Communicate QEP was developed as part of LSU’s ongoing institutional planning and through campus-wide collaborations. It applies a whole-systems approach to strategically enhancing and scaling up LSU’s existing C-I programming as a high-impact pedagogical intervention via new and increased resources accessible to LSU’s 30,000 undergraduates.

Geaux Communicate centers on four student learning and success outcomes. Three program-level outcomes were also established to support the achievement of these student learning and success outcomes and to guide the long-term success of this QEP. The
implementation of Geaux Communicate prioritizes expanding, creating, and enhancing support and resources in two key areas: (1) C-I faculty training and recognition opportunities, and (2) in- and out-of-class C-I student learning support and recognition opportunities. Practical and meaningful assessment approaches have been identified to assess the seven outcomes at both formative and summative stages. 

The Geaux Communicate initiative is strategically designed to maximize existing resources and allocate new resources to create and enhance sustainable C-I programming that will support teaching and learning excellence across the Institution throughout this five-year QEP and well beyond.

View student success & learning outcomes and Program-level outcomes

Communication-intensive (C-I) pedagogy is a high-impact teaching approach that integrates course-based subject matter with communication-based activities, simultaneously deepening students’ content learning and advancing their communication skills. Past research suggested a positive correlation between participation in LSU C-I Courses and graduation. A recent study expanded this work with additional cohort data and explored the following research questions:

  1. Is participation in C-I Courses a predictor of graduation at LSU? Does the positive correlation found in the 2012 cohort hold true across other LSU undergraduate cohorts?
  2. Does participation in 1 or 2 LSU C-I Courses show similar correlations to 3 or more LSU C-I Courses?
  3. To what extent is C-I a significant predictor of graduation at LSU specifically for low-income (Pell) students?

Access research summaryReview Full Research Report

Using a whole-systems approach, this QEP aims to strategically advance and scale up LSU’s existing Communication-Intensive (C-I) programming as a high-impact pedagogical practice (HIP) and intervention and enhancement for undergraduate education across the disciplines. 

View the Change Model and Geaux Communicate Outcomes

Developing the Geaux Communicate QEP throughout the past two years has been a collective effort. The individuals listed below have been key contributors to the development of the QEP, and we thank them for all of their hard work and commitment to the milestone of formally moving Geaux Communicate from proposal stage into implementation.

Name College/Department
Aly Mousaad Aly College of Engineering
Jackie Bach Office of Academic Affairs/College of Human Sciences & Education
Isabella Badeau* College of Art & Design
Jahanna Bailey College of Human Sciences & Education
Negar Basiri CxC
Jennifer Baumgartner CxC/College of Human Sciences & Education
Inessa Bazayev College of Music & Dramatic Arts
Michael Bibler College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Boz Bowles CxC/College of Engineering
Ryan Bromfield* College of Engineering
Rebecca Burdette CxC/College of Business
Becky Carmichael CxC/College of Agriculture/College of Coast & Environment/College of Science
Jane Cassidy Office of Academic Affairs/College of Music & Dramatic Arts
Wen-Chieh Fan LSU Online
Chelsea Chisolm* Manship School of Mass Communication
Morgan Claybrooks* Manship School of Mass Communication
Ashley Clayton College of Human Sciences & Education
Tori Clement CxC/LSU Discover
Gabrielle Connor* College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Vic Cronan* College of Human Sciences & Education
Erica Daigle Emerging Technology Center
Simmion Demery* College of Art & Design
Mike Dettinger College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Kevin DiBenedetto CxC
Nnenna Eke* College of Engineering
Lora Eliott College of Engineering
Nick Erickson College of Music & Dramatic Arts
Mikayla Foster* College of Agriculture
Annemarie Galeucia CxC/Ogden Honors College
Fern Galvez College of Science
Ashley Grant College of Agriculture
Janene Grodesky College of Human Sciences & Education
Aimee Guillory* College of Engineering
Stephanie Hailes* Manship School of Mass Communication
Hannah Hauck* College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Darrell Henry College of Science
Stephanie Heumann College of Engineering
Matthew Hiatt College of the Coast & Environment
Jeannie Hopper Residential Life
Liam Hopper* College of Art & Design
Josef Horáček CxC/College of Art & Design
Tim Hoskins* College of Music & Dramatic Arts
Michael Jarvis* College of Agriculture
Jake Jeandron* College of Engineering
Mike Kaller College of Agriculture
Corrie Kiesel College of Humanities & Social Sciences 
Drew Lamonica Arms Ogden Honors College
Roman Landry* College of Art & Design
Matt Lee College of Agriculture
Kris Lindsey Hall E.J. Ourso College of Business
Elise Lipari* E.J. Ourso College of Business
Amy Luther College of Science
Kristen Mauch College of Art & Design
Erin McKinley College of Agriculture
Morgan Miller* College of Agriculture
Mary Moore* College of Music & Dramatic Arts
Ese Mukoro* Ogden Honors College/E.J. Ourso College of Business
Dami Olorunfemi* E.J. Ourso College of Business 
Rafael Orozco College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Kate Pettrey College of Engineering
Tucker Poret* College of Engineering
Lillian Powell* CxC/College of Science
ReRe Pride-Shaw College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Sybil Pun* College of Engineering
Luisa Restrepo Perez College of Art & Design
Johnna Roose College of Science
Tara Rose Office of Institutional Effectiveness
Christina Rothenbeck CxC/Ogden Honors College
Claire Sassic Young Office of Institutional Effectiveness
Helmut Schneider E.J. Ourso College of Business
Andy Schwarz E.J. Ourso College of Business
Lea Showers* College of Art & Design
Brandi Simmons CxC
Storm Spell* College of Agriculture
Michelle Spielman Office of Communications & University Relations
Anna Catherine Strong* Student Government/College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Malinda Sutor CxC/College of Human Sciences & Education/College of Humanities & Social Sciences/Ogden Honors College
Avery Thomas* CxC/College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Shanai Watson* CxC/College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Laura Wiley E.J. Ourso College of Business
Sadie Wilks Manship School of Mass Communication
Shania Winchester* CxC/College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Jason Wolfe College of Humanities & Social Sciences

* indicates student representative

Below is more information about LSU’s QEP efforts. This page is being continuously updated, so if you have a question that isn’t answered here, send it to us at cxc@lsu.edu.

LSU is accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). A key part of the reaffirmation of accreditation requires institutions to develop and implement a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) every five years to demonstrate their commitment to academic excellence and student learning and success. You can learn more about LSU’s comprehensive SACSCOC reaffirmation processes here.

Being able to effectively communicate is a skill that transcends any single field. It enables us to find, acquire, share, and apply knowledge. However, being able to effectively communicate is not a trait we are simply born with—it is a learned skill and one that is more important than ever given the rapidly evolving nature of our world. Communication skills are also among the top skills and competencies ranked by hiring managers across a variety of public and private sectors.

While the specificity of what qualifies as effective communication can differ across disciplines, overarching themes include being able to successfully articulate ideas and knowledge through written, spoken, visual, and technological forms. That could range anywhere from delivering a comprehensive project pitch or collaborating on a research funding proposal to authoring industry-specific reports or producing data visualizations for public audiences. These are the types of multimodal communication projects that many LSU faculty are integrating into their teaching to help students better learn, communicate, and apply course content within and beyond the classroom.

Undergraduate communication skills development was selected as the QEP topic based on evidence demonstrated via LSU’s strategic priorities, analysis of assessment findings, and exploratory activities with various constituent groups conducted in the 2022 Spring and Summer semesters. As a nationally recognized leader in communication-intensive teaching and learning, we have a strong foundation on which we are building and expanding across the campus.

As a teacher of a certified C-I course you are a valued member of the LSU CxC family. We see you and appreciate your efforts, energy and intention. Our hope is that this, QEP will provide new and enhanced opportunities to support and celebrate the good work you are already doing. As a champion for C-I teaching on this campus, you may be asked to share your expertise with colleagues as we continue to extend communication-intensive experiences across the campus to all LSU undergraduate students.

While Communication-Intensive (C-I) pedagogy at LSU is a demonstrated high-impact teaching practice, it is not the best approach for every undergraduate course. If C-I isn’t the right fit for your course content or your instructional approach, that’s okay. While you may not be teaching a certified C-I course, you likely do many things to help students learn about and practice communication, and you can encourage your students to seek the free support services available to all LSU undergraduates via the CxC Studios. If you’re unsure whether C-I is a good fit for you or you want to learn more about what resources are available to your students and how you can leverage them, reach out to the CxC Team.

LSU is committed to helping students to achieve the highest levels of intellectual and personal development. Regardless of your chosen degree path or life plan, effective communication will be at the forefront of your journey. Research from the American Association of Colleges and Universities, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, and the World Economic Forum (just to name a few) shows just how in-demand communication skills are across fields, industries, sectors, and global regions. This is why LSU will be enhancing and expanding free resources and opportunities to help all LSU undergraduates advance their communication skills inside and outside of the classroom.

Whether you realize it or not, you play a critical role in the skills development of undergraduate students across campus. Through this initiative, you will have the opportunity to build on those outcomes with intentional collaboration across departments, and to work alongside fellow staff and faculty members with the unifying goal of ensuring LSU students have the tools they need to cultivate their communication skills within the classroom and beyond.