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The purpose of the North Idaho College Outcomes
Assessment Plan is twofold: first, to provide information that
will assist the college in determining its overall institutional
effectiveness; and second, to assess the degree to which the
educational outcomes of the college’s instructional programs and
support services are being met.
Simply stated, outcomes assessment allows the
college the answer the questions, "To what extent are we
accomplishing our mission?" and "Are we delivering
programs and services that are effective and continuously
improving?"
The college’s outcomes assessment efforts will
also assist the institution in meeting the Northwest Association
of Schools and Colleges accrediting standards which govern
institutional planning and effectiveness (Standard 1.B) and
educational planning and assessment (Standard 2.B). These
standards outline the mandatory compliance that is expected of the
college in regard to "systematic evaluation activities"
and "regular and continuous assessment of programs."
Kathy Christie, Assistant Vice President for
Planning and Assessment, chairs the Outcomes Assessment
Committee and works closely with the College’s
administrators, division chairs, faculty members, directors and other professional
staff for the implementation of the assessment duties.
Institutional Effectiveness
Many community colleges identify institutional
effectiveness indicators to help provide a framework for viewing
the overall effectiveness of the institution and its mission. To
establish institutional effectiveness indicators for use by NIC,
the Outcomes Assessment Committee studied indicators currently
being used by other community colleges in our region. The
committee ultimately decided upon twelve Effectiveness
Indicators for NIC. Each indicator has a series of performance
measures and numerous assessment activities such as student
surveys, alumni surveys, and community surveys providing data
related to the performance measures.
Major Assessment Tools
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