Contact Information

Carrie Naughton
Mathematics Instructor

cnaught@inverhills.edu
651-450-3785
L247

Steven Hartlaub
Spanish and French Instructor

shartla@inverhills.edu
651-450-3776
B226

Institutional Assessment

Assessment and Evaluation of Programs, Departments, and College-Wide Learning Outcomes

Overview and Objectives

Inver Hills Community College is committed to continually improving all aspects of the student experience while being accountable to the broader community the college serves. To these ends, the college maintains a faculty-driven and administration supported assessment and evaluation program with the following objectives:

1. Promote and support a culture of assessment and evaluation across the campus.
2. Conduct a rigorous and multifaceted assessment and evaluation program.
3. Facilitate the use of assessment results for the regular evaluation of all programs and departments with a focus on improving student learning and increasing retention, persistence, and completion.
4. Identify, collect, and disseminate resources that can provide a deeper understanding of assessment and evaluation.

Department and Program Review

The department and program review process is designed to define and continually improve the contributions of all departments and programs to student learning. It features:

1. Continuous Review. Every department or program is part of a cohort that completes a specific component of the review process each year over a five-year cycle. These components are Student Success, Partnerships, Instructional Strategies, Curriculum, and Planning.
2. Meaningful Data. Every fall semester, departments and programs receive assessment data across multiple categories accompanied by an evaluation of their health in each area in function of clearly defined metrics.
3. Peer Review. Every spring semester, departments in each cohort share and discuss their reports with one another and offer suggestions for improvement.
4. Administrative Support. Departments or programs whose evaluation results indicate health concerns receive extra support from deans in the design and implementation of an action plan.
5. Integration. College-wide and program outcomes are integrated into the department and program review model every year.

College-Wide Outcomes

All Inver Hills students will develop personally and intellectually via the following college-wide learning outcomes:

1. Critical Thinking - Students will be able to:
   • Collect factual evidence
   • Analyze, synthesize, and evaluate ideas
   • Demonstrate creativity in application and expression
2. Communication - Students will be able to:
   • Listen effectively to others and value diverse perspectives
   • Organize and communicate ideas successfully through speech, writing, and visuals.
3. Civic Engagement - Students will be able to:
   • Demonstrate a knowledge of and a respect for human diversity in society
   • Demonstrate responsible engagement in the local and greater community

AY 15 16 College Wide Outcomes Assessment Results

AY 15-16 College-Wide Learning Outcomes Results

The Assessment of Student Learning

The college routinely conducts three different forms of learning outcomes assessment:

1. Program Outcomes Assessment. Undertaken annually by each degree granting program to determine if students are meeting the specified outcomes.
2. Minnesota Transfer Curriculum Outcomes Assessment. Undertaken annually by non-programs or programs that award fewer than 10 degrees per year to determine if students are meeting Minnesota Transfer Curriculum Goals before transferring. Authentic student work samples (i.e. artifacts) are scored by Inver Hills faculty using rubrics they select. Results are then tabulated and used by faculty to effect the continual improvement of teaching and learning.
3. VALUE Rubric Outcomes Assessment. Undertaken every semester. Artifacts are drawn from a large number of departments and courses across the college and scored by trained evaluators from other institutions as part of the Multistate Collaborative for Learning Outcomes Assessment and the Minnesota VALUE projects. Results are returned to faculty as individualized reports which they then use to continually improve teaching and learning. The college collects artifacts in the VALUE outcomes of critical thinking, quantitative literacy, written communication, civic engagement, ethical reasoning, and intercultural knowledge and competence.