Merritt College Adopts TracDat for Strategic Planning and Student Learning Outcomes Assessment
Initiative to Establish a Consistent Procedure for Managing
Planning Processes Across the Institution

PITTSBURGH, PA, October 2, 2006 – Nuventive, a leading provider of individual and institutional assessment solutions, announces its implementation of TracDat at Merritt College of Oakland, California. Nuventive TracDat is an enterprise assessment management solution used to manage the process of strategic planning and student learning outcomes assessment throughout the institution.

Merritt College, one of the four institutions within the Peralta Community College District in Northern California, has served as a comprehensive two-year college for more than 50 years providing exceptional programs, courses, and services in the San Francisco Bay Area’s East Bay communities.

In 2005, the College began looking for a software application to help organize its strategic planning process and provide real time reports that would document the on-going progress toward achieving its strategic directions and institutional priorities. The existing internal process was paper-based and reporting was a time consuming manual process. The collection of data from around the campus was challenging, and even when collected, the planning and assessment information was difficult to aggregate.

Merritt College selected Nuventive TracDat after conducting extensive competitive research and learning that the software was successfully implemented at Guam Community College, another WASC-accredited institution. In addition, the Merritt College evaluation team found that TracDat is being used at many other community colleges in the nation, including Delgado Community College (New Orleans), Wharton County Community College (Texas) and Blackhawk Technical College (Wisconsin). The campus-wide implementation of TracDat will extend to comprehensive Web-based planning and assessment, while establishing consistent processes for managing strategic planning and student learning outcomes assessment across the institution.

With TracDat, Merritt College will be able to demonstrate to its stakeholders, improved institutional effectiveness by providing both evidence of student learning outcome achievement and evidence of institutional and program specific improvement. And more importantly, Merritt will demonstrate a process of ongoing and systematic planning and program evaluation that will continually sharpen its core competencies and improve overall student learning.

“TracDat is a valuable tool for Merritt’s strategic planning process. It allows faculty and staff to access their web-based departmental/unit plans around-the-clock through a web browser. It also helps the college to implement a common language and culture for planning and assessment and drives the building of measurable action plans that directly support student learning outcomes,” said Dr. Carmen A. Jordan-Cox, Vice President of Student Services, who has responsibility for College Research and Planning.

Merritt’s Research and Planning Officer, Ms. Anika Toussant-Jackson added, “TracDat is a valuable tool that supports the collection and storage of evidence about campus-wide continuous program improvement efforts that will ultimately enable the college to track progress towards its mission.”

“Merritt has a long history in California of providing high quality career-based education,” said Dr. David Raney, Nuventive CEO. “We are very pleased with their decision to implement TracDat across the entire institution and are proud to play a key role in supporting Merritt’s campus wide planning initiatives.”

About Merritt College
Nestled in the hills above San Francisco Bay, Merritt College offers students the opportunity to study in one of the most dramatic natural settings in Northern California. With a panorama that includes the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific Ocean, Merritt's striking vistas provide a breathtaking backdrop for acclaimed programs in Community Social Services, Registered Nursing, Child Development, Nutrition and Dietetics, Environmental Studies, and Landscape Horticulture. Merritt's 7,000 students benefit from a diverse, sophisticated and startlingly beautiful learning environment, as well as excellent student-support services and a dedicated faculty and staff.

About Nuventive
Nuventive is a leading provider of comprehensive, integrated real-time solutions that enable its customers to support the continuous process of assessing, managing and improving learning. Nuventive customers are institutions, faculty, administrators, students and private sector users in over 20 countries. Institutional customers include Western Michigan University, the 14 campus Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Delgado Community College and Providence College. Nuventive maintains strategic partnerships with industry leaders such as the European Institute for E-Learning (EIfEL).Thousands of users around the world have licensed Nuventive products and the Company has received industry as well as customer recognition for its innovative solutions.

Nuventive is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with distribution in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. For more information, please visit www.nuventive.com or call +1.412.847.0280 or 1.877.366.8700.

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