ASSESSMENT AT NICC

The importance of assessment in all areas of higher education continues to grow, both as a measure of learning in the classroom and as a tool for accountability to ensure that time, effort, and resources at NICC are invested in the best possible way. Assessment serves as the foundation for institutional effectiveness, ensuring achievement of the institution’s mission and goals. This website was created to support assessment for student learning and success within NICC’s academic programs and student support services. 

Broadly defined, assessment is an ongoing, systematic, and organized process aimed at understanding and improving student learning, the environment for student learning, and college operations. Assessment is a recurring evidence-based process that examines whether day-to-day activities meet our mission, goals, student learning, and support service outcomes. Finally, assessment is key to making data-informed decisions about activities, programs, and initiatives within a discipline, department, or institution.

The purpose of Assessment is to promote continuous improvement in the quality of teaching and learning at Northeast Iowa Community College by facilitating the identification and assessment of student learning outcomes; those skills, abilities, attitudes, and behaviors that are most likely to contribute to student success, both as a student at NICC and upon graduation. Assessment is at the heart of teaching and learning: Classroom teachers assess student performance daily, gauging mastery of course learning outcomes. At a shared course, sequence, department, or program level, however, assessment necessitates that faculty clearly articulate to students and other stakeholders a shared understanding of what students will learn, how they will understand it, and to what degree they will demonstrate proficiency.