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How to Use the EP3 Guide
The EP3 Guide is designed to support departments to engage in intentional reflection and action to effectively serve their communities and implement change. While the Guide was primarily designed for chairs or other leaders in physics departments at four-year colleges and universities in the US, we have found that the information in the Guide is applicable in broader contexts, including for program reviewers, instructional staff, students, members of non-physics departments, administrators, two-year college faculty, and international audiences. Please see the FAQ for more details.
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Before taking action, identify relevant Guide content:
- To help understand the current state of your department and why you might be facing a particular challenge, discuss the first question in the cycle of reflection and action.
- Familiarize your team with a big picture of what’s in the EP3 Guide by spending a few minutes perusing the .
- We have organized the EP3 Guide around content relevant to challenges commonly faced by physics departments. Many challenges departments face are interconnected. Learn how you can improve your program on the Map Your Program's Goals page to gain insight on how solutions to your challenges could include approaches from a variety of perspectives.
While reading or using Guide sections, keep in mind:
- Creating change and tackling tough challenges is not the work of a single individual. We suggest discussing Guide sections as a department (or appropriate subgroup); seed your discussions using the additional guiding questions found in the cycle of reflection and action.
- It is important to gather and analyze information about your current situation so that you can be confident that the actions you take are likely to yield the hoped for outcomes. Study programmatic assessments in each section to help your department evaluate data needed to better understand factors underlying your situation, and to track progress on how strategies are working.
The Guide is a conversation starter, not a task list. It is up to your department to assess which themes and practices in a section are relevant to your particular challenges and context.
