TANDARDS
Course Oversite
Proper monitoring and oversight of transcripted credit is provided by academic
departments, NWTC Recruitment and Academic Advising teams and K-12 Relations
team. This oversight ensures that coursework meets higher education standards
and that students understand the potential use of their earned credits.
Quality Assurance Program
In transcripted credit agreements, high school
instructors are trained by NWTC instructors to ensure
that course outcomes and competencies are comparable
when taught by the high school instructors. This
training includes required attendance at an annual
curriculum sharing event (Spring Summit) and train-
the-trainer courses for certain identified coursework. In
addition, high school teachers are provided with course
curriculum and common assessment, projects and
learning plans through a learning management system.
These tools along with use of duplicative or approved
textbooks and resources helps ensure course rigor.
The purpose of this quality assurance program is to
validate that course outcomes and competencies taught
by the high school instructors are directly aligned with
those for the same courses taught by NWTC instructors.
Quality assurance will be achieved through reviews with
high school instructors whom are teaching transcripted
credit courses. An NWTC representative will utilize a
course checklist to validate the attainment of course
outcomes and competencies with the associated
evidence provided by the high school instructor.
These quality check-ups will provide opportunities for
additional collaboration and continuous improvement in
which the high school instructors shares what is working
and what is not working with the designated NWTC
representative. The NWTC representative will work
with the necessary NWTC and high school personnel to
answer questions, provide information and clarifications
necessary to assist the high school instructor in closing
any gaps identified. The completed checklist along
with any necessary Corrective Action Plans will be
retained by both NWTC and the high school instructor.
The above process has been piloted with a desire to
scale the implementation throughout all courses and
divisions, however; this has been challenging due to
capacity, region size and the amount of dual credit
courses offered. We will continue to blend the above
model while incorporating some transcripted credit
courses into our assessment plan efforts. Essentially,
our faculty teams will work with high school teachers to
assess the outcomes of learners through assessments.
The team will assess data to identify student
performance and determine if issues arise in the findings
that warrant conversations around alignment. NWTC
views assessment as an ongoing, interactive process
used to modify courses and programs as necessary,
and to promote the continuous quality improvement of
teaching and services the college offers to students.
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