RVCC 2019 NECHE Self-Study

area and allow Program Directors a way to get external feedback on student readiness,
curriculum changes, and learning outcome appropriateness. Some programs in the Allied
Health department also employ Employee Satisfaction Surveys which survey area
employers that hire our graduates. These surveys provide data to programs which assist
in assessing if we are preparing our students appropriately for the workforce. Feedback
from advisory boards is invaluable in assisting Program Directors with program content
and relevance of curricula to the current workforce. In 2017, the MLT program underwent
a re-design to better align the curriculum with workforce needs. As a result of input from
the Advisory Board, the program shifted its Clinical Practicums from being spread out
throughout the curriculum to combining all areas (Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology,
Urinalysis, and Blood Bank) into one practicum offered in the final semester of the
program. In addition to this, the advisory board had provided feedback that MLT students
were not entering the workforce with enough confidence in phlebotomy skills. As such,
competencies related to phlebotomy skills were added to the final practicum. The first
group of students going through the new curriculum are completing their practicums in
Spring of 2019. Data assessing effectiveness of the new curriculum will be evaluated at the
Fall 2019 Advisory Board Meeting.
RVCC is very proud that its student outcomes and levels of academic expectations are
equivalent to similar students in the NH University System (UNH, Plymouth State, Keene
State, and Granite State). Members of the Math and Science department worked as part
of a CCSNH delegation with the University System delegation to create course
equivalencies. On the surface, this work merely ensures that students taking specific
classes at RVCC will have no difficulty transferring courses to the university system;
however, what the work truly does is identify that students meeting specific course
outcomes at RVCC are equivalent to students meeting the same course outcomes at the
University System. Recently, courses in the English, Humanities, and Social Sciences have
also been approved for course equivalency at the University System level.
Student Success
RVCC student success is measured in a variety of ways including certificate completion or
transfer; licensure passage rates in the Allied Health programs; and employment rates as
described earlier in this Standard narrative. Each program defines its unique program
outcomes based on the standard of the industry they are preparing students for. Many
accredited programs in the Allied Health, Health Science and Nursing departments set
outcomes based on national accreditation agency thresholds and include data collection
related to retention rates, graduation rates, board pass rates, licensure rates, employment
rates. These accredited program thresholds are often established based on national
averages and RVCC’s maintenance of accredited programs is dependent on meeting or
exceeding these thresholds. Each accredited program publishes this data on its program
website and regularly meets or exceeds national standards
College wide success cutoffs have not been established, but RVCC tracks completion rates
(Figure 8.5), retention rates, transfer rates, and Financial Aid loan default rates. Between
Fall 2016 and Fall 2017, the first to second year retention rate of first time, degree seeking
students was 51% for full-time students and 37% for part-time students.
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