On-line classes are becoming very important to NICC

More and more learning at Northeast Iowa Community College is taking place on a computer.

NICC Director of Distance Learning Dr. Christopher Ostwinkle says 23 percent of all credits were generated through NICC's distance learning options during the spring 2011 semester.  Students in these courses came from 38 states and numerous countries.

In total, 30 percent of all NICC students have taken at least one course completely online. In addition to ICN, hybrid and asynchronous online courses, the college will also begin to offer synchronous (real-time) online learning courses this fall. In addition, the college now offers 20 academic programs completely online.

"Even though we have grown significantly the past several years, we have maintained academic quality in these courses," stated NICC Vice President of Academic Affairs Curt Oldfield, pointing to the fact that all faculty must successfully complete an online training course before they can teach in that capacity. In this course, instructors learn about the tools available to them and the strategies to help students be successful in this mode of learning. In addition, student success measures such as GPA's and withdrawal rates are carefully monitored by distance learning staff.