Student Learning Outcomes & Assessment Cycle (SLOAC)
Frequently Asked Questions
SLO FAQs
Below are some frequently asked questions about Student Learning
Outcomes:
What is an SLO?
An SLO, or Student Learning Outcome, is essentially a goal that you set
for both your students and yourself. What do you expect your students
to have learned by the end of the semester, and what can they do with
that knowledge? What are the primary
things that you want to teach them? These are your SLOs. Think of an SLO as
if completing this sentence, "Upon completion of this
project/class/program/degree, the student should be able to..." Such
SLOs can be put into play at multiple levels.
Assignment-level SLOs:
What is the purpose of the assignment? What particular skills
or knowledge does it attempt to measure? How does it relate to the
overall content and themes of the course?
Course-level SLOs:
What is the purpose of the course? What particular skills or
knowledge does it attempt to communicate? What do you expect
students who complete the course to have learned? How does this
relate to the overall content and purpose of your Program?
Program-level SLOs:
What is the purpose of your Program? What skills or knowledge do you
expect students who take multiple courses in the Program to come away
with? What are the consistent themes that carry over from course to
course? How do these themes relate to our Institutional goals?
College-wide Learning Goals (other colleges may call these
Institutional-level SLOs)
What is the purpose of the College? What skills or knowledge
should every Chabot graduate have acquired while attending classes here?
These questions have already been largely addressed by the excellent
prior work done in formulating our
College-wide Learning Goals.
We address these competencies in five broad areas:
- Global and Cultural Involvement
- Civic Responsibility: Cultural, Economic, Historical, Political
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Development of the Whole Person
Are there any other
definitions that might make this a little clearer?
From Cabrillo College:
"A Student Learning Outcome is different from a course objective. SLOs
for the classroom describe the knowledge, skills, abilities or attitudes
that a student can demonstrate by the end of your course."
From Skyline
College: "Student Learning Outcomes are the degree to which
students are learning what is intended for them to learn, whether on the
course, program, or institutional level."
From
Oxnard College: "A student learning outcome is a statement of
expectation that articulates what students will know, do, or feel as a
result of a 'treatment' where what students have learned is assessed,
documented, and used for improving learning."
From Diablo Valley
College: "A student learning outcome is a statement of what a
learner is expected to know, understand or be able to do as a result of a
learning process. The intended educational outcomes must be consistent
with the institutional mission."
How do SLOs differ
from the "Expected Outcomes" listed on our course outlines?
When drafting Title V compliant course outlines, you are asked to list
"Expected Outcomes," which can be thought of as the main topics that will be
addressed by the course. This list must be exhaustive enough to meet
the requirements of equivalent classes at UC and CSU so that our course will
articulate. This can be thought of as the "microcontent" of the class:
the specifics of what faculty are expected to cover when teaching a
particular course.
SLOs operate at the "macro" level, in that they ask you to address the
bigger picture. They shift the emphasis from the specifics of what is
being taught to the generality of what has actually been learned. For
example, if you are teaching your daughter to put on her seatbelt, adjust
her mirrors, start the car, put on her turn signal, turn her head to look
behind her and then pull out of the parking spot, then she is learning to
drive.
SLOs versus Course Objectives - While Course Objectives "think
about content or coverage," SLOs "consider what students should be able to
DO with what they've learned by the end of the semester."
From Skyline
College: "The key difference between objectives and outcomes is
the shift in focus from what we teach to what we expect students to learn
and ideally master. Lisa Brewster of Miramar Community College, which
recently underwent accreditation, cited the following example from a career
course. One objective is for instructors 'to provide students with
opportunities to develop their leadership skills."
The outcome, on the other hand, is for students 'to develop leadership,
organizational, and interpersonal skills, and be able to express them in a
job interview.' Note that this outcome example also provides a context
for learning and moves toward a means to evaluate the student's performance.
In short, SLO's demonstrate the extent to which student performance meets
expectations of learning."
What does an SLO look like?
SLOs use active words to demonstrate the degree to which students are
internalizing the lessons of their coursework. According to
Bloom's Taxonomy, the greater the level of abstraction to which students
can demonstrate their newly acquired knowledge, the more thoroughly the
knowledge has been acquired.
If you want your students to acquire and demonstrate one of the skills
listed in Bloom's Taxonomy -- Knowledge, Comprehension, Application,
Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation --
use a
corresponding verb from the chart linked here. Always defer to the
higher level of cognition, it includes the lower.
Can you show me some sample SLOs?
Here are a bunch from different disciplines.
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
AMERICAN HISTORY - Demonstrate knowledge of a basic narrative of
American History: political, economic, social, and cultural, including
knowledge of unity and diversity in American society. (SUNY Brockport, NY)
ANTHROPOLOGY - Forensic Anthropology: Using the basic principles of
forensic anthropology, analyze skeletonized human remains to
determine sex, age at death, height and genetic ancestry. (Cabrillo College,
CA)
ATHLETICS - Preseason Intercollegiate Water Polo - Men: Analyze
and customize principles of cardiovascular fitness, muscular
strength, endurance, and flexibility to water polo, and apply them to
prevent injury. (Cabrillo College, CA)
ART HISTORY - Given two paintings – each from a different historical
period – determine which period each is from, describe how
imagery is used in each, and contrast how each reflects the
cultural norms of the period. (Miami University, OH)
CHEMISTRY - Students will identify a suitable research question,
design an appropriate experimental procedure to resolve the
question, carry out the experiment, and report the results
in a format appropriate for a scientific journal. (Miami University, OH)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE - Describe the principles of community-based
policing and apply them to given situations. (California Assessment
Institute)
DANCE - Street Dance and Hip Hop: Perform, with an increasing
degree of proficiency, simple Hip Hop movements, demonstrating
increasing control of skills pertaining to memorization, physical safety,
body awareness, alignment, and aesthetic valuing. (Cabrillo College, CA)
GEOLOGY - Analyze how the earth's oceans are a part of the
earth's systems from geological, chemical, biological and physical
perspectives. (Miami University, OH)
MATH - Given a geometric system, students will determine what
algebraic properties apply to this system. (Miami University, OH)
PHOTOGRAPHY - Manually operate a 35 mm camera to create
original photographs applying principles of exposure and
development of black and white photographic films and papers with concepts
of composition and design, aesthetics and content. (California Assessment
Institute)
SPEECH - Organize, outline and deliver
well-researched speeches to inform and persuade that are
tailored to a specific audience. (California Assessment Institute)
THEATER - Intro to Acting: Select, analyze, and
perform selections from dramatic texts utilizing the
performance skills of memorization, vocal projection, spatial awareness,
stage directions and physical expression. (Cabrillo College, CA)
What about
assessment?
If you set a goal, you need to have a way of determining whether or not
it has been met, and to what extent; this is the purpose of assessment.
Further, if you determine that your goal has not been met, you are now in a
better position to change your strategy to assure success the next time.
The primary rule to be applied when formulating SLOs is that they must be
assessable; there must be some way to measure student success in achieving
those goals. We are all already measuring student success with our
exams and assignments; we need only codify the process by specifying exactly
what our goals are and measuring how well they are being met.
What exactly is the difference between an A and a B, a B and a C, and so
on? What criteria must be met in order for students to demonstrate to
you that they have achieved the desired outcome?
When you formulate your course-level SLOs, ask yourself which exams or
assignments you have been using to assess them. Do you assign a final
essay with the expectation that students will necessarily refer to certain
points of information from their studies? Do you administer a final
exam with sets of questions that test different areas of the coursework
covered? Do you evaluate a final project by looking for certain
criteria to be fulfilled?
The essay, exam, or project is the assessment tool, and recognizing the
criteria by which you judge it is the first step toward constructing a
rubric.
What are rubrics?
A rubric is a list of rules you make up for yourself when you set out to
grade an exam or assignment. Ask yourself what skills or knowledge you
would like your students to demonstrate in that assignment, how you expect
them to be demonstrated, and what constitutes perfect, average, and
substandard performance.
Once you figure out exactly what it is that you're looking for, you can
give that information to your students -- who will no longer be in the dark
as to what your expectations are. Once you have designed a rubric,
your grading policies will not only be transparent to your students, but
they will also be more consistent. Grading papers will probably go a lot
faster, too.
Do you
have any sample SLOs and rubrics to see?
English - Click to view
example SLO (PDF)
English - Click to
view example rubric (PDF)
How can I get started?
Click the link on the left called SLO Tutorial to learn to write SLOs,
write rubrics, measure your outcomes and apply the lessons learned. |
