Why Do SLO Assessment?

A common question faculty members ask about SLOs is “Why aren’t grades ‘good enough’ to show what our students have learned in our courses?” The short answer is that most final grades in a course reflect much more than simply how well a student learned content. Final grades often also include points from objectives that are ancillary to the main outcomes for a class, such as extra credit assignments and participation or attendance. SLO assessment is a way to direct focus on the primary purposes of a course to see how well students are truly obtaining and applying the discipline material faculty members are teaching.

SLO Cycle from: Pervez, Shahbaz & Abosaq, Nasser & Alandjani, Gasim & Shahbaz, Muazma & Akram, Adeel. (2018). 21st Century Educational Requirements and Teaching Strategies for Competing With the Cyborgs. INTCESS 5th International Conference on Education and Social Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey, 2018.

Who Does SLO Assessment?

Every faculty member within a discipline assesses SLOs, both full and part time. While full-time instructors at CCC are the ones most often involved in collecting/analyzing results and making necessary changes (except in disciplines where no full-time instructor is present), students benefit most when all instructors conduct assessment and engage in implementing changes to improve learning.

When Do We Assess SLOs?

Accreditation standards expect “a regular cycle of assessment,” which gives colleges some freedom to decide for themselves. While some disciplines are reporting results for each course SLO once a year, most are reporting on each SLO once every two years. Some disciplines assess all SLOs at once during one semester in their chosen cycle, and others stagger the reporting throughout the cycle, doing only a few SLOs at a time each semester.

Where Are SLO Results Stored?

Instructional “point people” within each discipline are currently reporting SLO assessment results and corresponding improvement plans in the online system, TracDat. However, CCC has plans to replace TracDat with the eLumen system in 2018. This system will not only allow faculty members to report results but will also allow all faculty to conduct assessment within the system. Stay tuned for training!

Need Help?

SLO Coordinator Anna Martinez: anna.martinez@cloviscollege.edu

SUO Coordinator Erica Johnson: erica.johnson@cloviscollege.edu

SUO Super Stars!

Transfer Services Dual Method Assessment

Counseling faculty members in Transfer Services are using an effective two-pronged approach to assessing their Service Unit Outcome: Students will be able to identify the general requirements for transfer and the preparation for their major to the 4-year university. This has given counselors a means to identify students who are planning to transfer to a four-year institution and ensure that these students receive the appropriate academic transfer counseling planning and support services.

Internal Data Tracking

During a transfer counseling session, counselors assist students in developing a student educational plan (SEP) which outlines both the general education and lower division major preparation requirements to transfer to a four-year university. Each time a counselor meets a student and provides a transfer counseling service, counselors code the session as a “TS” (“transfer service”) into the Colleague and/or SARS systems. Counseling faculty track the number of student contacts related to transfer services by reviewing the number of TS codes in the system. 6,656 student contacts had a TS code in 2016. Compared to 2015 data, this was an increase of 400 student contacts for transfer services. While this number is meeting counseling faculty have deemed an appropriate criterion, they are continuously assessing, evaluating, and improving their services.

CCC Counselors

Student Satisfaction Survey

An example of this ongoing and continuous improvement is with the use of a survey. Counselors recently added this additional layer of assessment to help them determine whether students really understood the requirements to transfer to a four-year institution. They implemented a student satisfaction survey during the fall 2017 to obtain student feedback on all counseling services, including transfer, by giving surveys to students after their meetings with counselors. 133 students completed the survey, and although this was a small sample, the data was positive. 70 of these students identified transfer service as a primary service need, and 99% of the 133 students strongly agreed and/or agreed that they were now able to select appropriate courses in order to accomplish their educational goals.