RVCC 2019 NECHE Self-Study

necessary, guide a suspension or closure of a program. The entire process is overseen by
the VPAA. This process was introduced to the college community during Faculty and Staff
Work Weeks in Fall of 2018 and training for all Program Directors was provided in
November 2018. The training was recorded for future use by Program Directors.
Programs that undergo national accreditation may submit their national accreditation
reports/results in lieu of the internal program review process.
River Valley has a strong history of assessment by accredited programs, and the Program
Directors of accredited programs often already have techniques to gather data that nonaccredited
programs may be able to utilize. This area is particularly true with regard to
gathering information on program graduates. In Spring of 2018, Program Directors began
a plan for accredited programs to formally share assessment and data collection
techniques with non-accredited programs. Work on this project is ongoing.
The program review process has led to a stream-lining of the programmatic offerings at
RVCC as identified in the newly updated program review schedule. This has been achieved
via removal of programs as necessary (due to low enrollment or decreased need in the
region for the training offered). Other programs have undergone the program review
process and been re-designed to better suit the need of the region. One example of this
was the Human Services Program, which was placed on hold for the 2016-2017 academic
year due low enrollment. Faculty then gathered information from local agencies regarding
the types of training that would better suit the students in this program. The curriculum
was updated based on the feedback and the program was relaunched in Fall of 2017 as the
Social Services Program.
Appraisal of Evaluation
In response to feedback from Program Directors, the Graduate Satisfaction Survey was
deployed as an electronic survey in Spring of 2018. The CCSNH System is also in the
process of implementing DegreeWorks which will help streamline the process for advisors
to track student success and retention. RVCC will implement Degree Works in 2019.
The program review process was also updated during Academic Year 17-18 as a result of
feedback from Program Directors. The updated process was created by Department Chairs
to reflect the difficulty Program Directors noted in accessing data that was being requested
as part of the process. While NOABO/Veera Bridge provides some information that can be
utilized for review of programs, it was not sufficient for the entirety of the data sets that
the program review process requested. The updated program review process was
implemented in Fall of 2018 and included a formal training for faculty during the semester
as well as a survey that Program Directors can deploy to faculty in their program to gather
necessary data. RVCC continues to look at ways in which we can use the processes of the
accredited programs to assist in data gathering for non-accredited programs.
Strengths
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The College has an abundance of qualitative data at the course and program level.
Department Chairs and Program Directors are dedicated to evaluation and review,
and actively work to make this a systematic part of the culture of all academic
programs.