ABCs of SLO at Cabrillo.pdf

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Student Learning Outcomes at Cabrillo Your role: Faculty members have three main tasks required as part of the job at Cabrillo: • List course SLOs on your syllabus. • Assess SLOs when asked to do so by your department chair or lead. • Share your assessment results and participate in your department’s SLO assessment discussions.

More details: Here are the answers to the questions that will help you accomplish those three tasks.

What is an SLO?

A Student Learning Outcome (SLO) describes the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes that students have attained by the end of a course, certificate the General Education program or degree. Cabrillo has four types: • Course SLOs, • Certificate SLOs • CTE degree SLOs • The Core 4 – which have 3 roles. They serve the SLOs for the General Education Program, for all transfer degrees, and as Cabrillo’s institutional outcomes

Where do SLO live? • • • •

Course SLOs live in the official Course Outline of Record. For how to find them, see page 4. Certificate SLOs are posted in the college catalog. CTE degree SLOs are posted in the college catalog. The Core 4 are listed in the college catalog and on the SLO website (https://sites.google.com/a/cabrillo.edu/student-‐learning-‐outcomes/).

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What is SLO assessment?

SLO Assessment is the process used to evaluate how well students have mastered course, certificate, and CTE degrees SLOs and the college core competencies.

At Cabrillo, SLO assessment is used to stimulate departmental discussion about student needs and issues and what we can do about them. It is not used to evaluate faculty.

Who assesses SLOs?

All adjunct and full-‐time faculty. SLO assessment is part of your professional responsibility to the college, a requirement of the job.

When are SLOs assessed? • • •

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Each course SLO is assessed once every six years, as part of department’s program planning process. Basic skills and transfer departments assess each of Core 4 once during that same six-‐year period. In addition to course SLOs, CTE departments assess each certificate and degree SLO during their six-‐year program planning cycle. CTE departments do not assess the Core 4. Program Chairs make up the specific schedule of when each SLO is assessed, taking into account when certain courses are offered.

How are SLOs assessed?

Step One Faculty choose either an major assignment, selected test questions, or a pre and post test to measure how their students have mastered SLOs. See the Assessing Instructional SLOs handbook on the SLO website for details. Step Two Faculty share the results of that SLO assessment in a department meeting. These meetings generally occur during Flex week, but they can also be held at other times.

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This sharing of assessment results includes: • Copies of the specific assignment used to assess the SLO and/or the rubric used to grade them (if applicable). • A general discussion of student strengths and weaknesses on the assessment. • The plans the individual faculty member has made to improve teaching and learning. • The help the faculty member needs from the department and/or the college to improve student success. Step Three Once everyone has shared individual assessment results, the department dialogues about: • Trends seen across the entire department. • What can be done to improve student learning overall. • What can be done to improve teaching overall. • Priorities for those improvements. • A timeline for how to implement those improvements. Step Four After this discussion, the department lead fills out a form that summarizes the dialogue at the department meeting. No individual names or individual results are reported. Step Five The department lead turns in the form with the department’s annual report. Step Six When it is time to write the department’s six-‐year program plan, the assessment results are examined again. The department looks over all the assessment that has occurred in the previous years, evaluating what has been done. This discussion is used to help create future plans and the program’s goals and recommendations. Funding requests must be tied to SLO assessment results, where applicable.

How do I find SLOs on a course outline?

Course outlines are stored on Cabrillo’s curriculum program called CurricUNET. You can find it by following these steps: • Go to Cabrillo’s main web page • Click Faculty/Staff area in the lower right corner

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• • • • • • • • • •

Click Instruction & Curriculum from the list on the left side of the Faculty Staff area page. You are now on the Office of Instruction page. Click Curriculum/CurricUNET from the list on the left side of the page. Hooray! You’ve found CurricUNET. Find Search on the left side of the page. Click Course. Select the department you want under Discipline. Enter Course number. Click Okay. Click on the WR icon beside the active copy of the course (in red) Scan the document for “Learning Outcomes.” Copy and paste these into your syllabus

What’s new with SLOs at Cabrillo?

We have a new automated SLO module on our curriculum program, CurricUNET, that is being phased in as a way to both record and archive SLO results. Your department will be trained in how to use this module sometime during the next two years. It will make filling out forms to capture your SLO assessment results much easier. If you want a preview of coming attractions, click on the schedule for training on the SLO website to see when your specific department will begin working with the module.

Have more questions? • • •

Check out the SLO web site for more detailed information (https://sites.google.com/a/cabrillo.edu/student-‐learning-‐outcomes/). Check out the Faculty Resource Guide found in the left hand column of the Office of Instruction web page (http://www.cabrillo.edu/services/instruction/) Contact Marcy Alancraig, SLO Coordinator, at 479-‐6366 or at [email protected]

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