Overcoming Challenges with the SLO process

1. Overcoming Challenges with the SLO process

2. CHALLENGE - The Business Model

5. Problems with the “production process” in higher education Learning is a SUBTLE Process. Students vary ENORMOUSLY!! Disciplines & professions require diverse methods of instruction.

6. The“production process” in higher education is “More Intricate and complicated than that in any industrial enterprise…”

7. The University is not a business: Treating the University as a business has damaged the quality of education and undermined its requests for funding.

8. Given the catastrophes that the business world has imposed on the global economy, I find it insane that the business model has been superimposed on education. --Marc Epstein

9. ANTIDOTE • Stay informed! • Increase ability to clearly articulate how education is different from business • Remember colleges are not “cookie cutters” of each other • Define what we do; otherwise, somebody will do it for us

10. CHALLENGE – Complex Mission

13. ANTIDOTE • Define your local priorities • Have conversations about who you serve and why • Plan strategically • Pay attention to legislation

14. CHALLENGE –Tools Missing

15. ANTIDOTE • Determine “real” tools needed • Identify tasks and path to completion

16. CHALLENGE #2 RESISTANCE TO CHANGE CHALLENGE – Formalized Assessment is

17. ANTIDOTE • Identify and chart layers • Identify and chart levels • Diagram connections • Keep it simple!

18. CHALLENGE - External Factors

19. ANTIDOTE • Identify external forces for your local college • Prepare counter evidence if needed • Choose to be collegial • Work cooperatively

20. CHALLENGE - Resistance to Change

21. Change Happens!!

22. The phases of transition through change Focusing on the past and denying change Commitment to work together for a new future Assessing where they stand and resisting change Imagining and exploring ways to the future

23. The phases of transition through change SLOs added to the accreditation standards 2002 SLOs Proficiency 2012 Focusing on the past and denying change Commitment to work together for a new future Assessing where they stand and resisting change Imagining and exploring ways to the future

24. ANTIDOTE • Acknowledge and tolerate resistance • Encourage and support change • For those that are stuck in concrete.. Breathe & Move on!

25. CHALLENGE - FACULTY M.I.A.

27. ANTIDOTE • Identify reason for each MIA faculty • Match people with their skills • Make meetings etc. productive AND enjoyable • Publicize accomplishments of faculty work • Streamline faculty work • Schedule meetings at faculty friendly times • Plan for time to discuss our craft!

28. CHALLENGE - Budget

30. ANTIDOTE • Simplify tasks • Develop enrollment management plan (Assert faculty role) • Choose to find the positive • Find the light! • Talk more about students and learning

31. CHALLENGE - TIME

32. ANTIDOTE • Relook at the work of faculty • Use meetings for the “work” • Put minutia in emails • Rethink committee structure • Focus on the 10+1

33. And, the Current Biggest Challenge

34. Closing the Loop: Providing Credible Evidence

35. Closing the Loop means going back to square one, or…

36. Assessing the effectiveness of changes to curriculum, pedagogy, resources, assessment methods, or learning outcomes implemented in response to assessment results.

37. GLOSSARY FOR TODAY • CLO Course Learning Outcome or Course Student Learning Outcome • PLO Program Learning Outcome or Program Student Learning Outcome • ILO Institutional Learning Outcome or Institutional Student Learning Outcomes

39. CASE STUDY #1 Course Learning Outcomes & Closing the Loop

40. English 49 Success Rates Note that English 49 Coordination data showed that a change in assessment during Fall 2008 from a final exam (71% on average) to portfolio (82% on average) showed an 11% increase in subsequent success rates of those students enrolled in English 101/105.

41. Success Rates of English Lab Students

43. Case Study #2 Program Learning Outcomes & Closing the Loop

47. What does it all mean?

48. Student scores across the program met and exceeded expectations, but Vocabulary trait score significantly lower. • Scores increased with course level, but not by a statistically significant amount. • Lowest scores clumped around 1st year courses without Conditions on Enrollment. • Results did not tell us about student learning accumulated through course sequencing in the program

49. Program Response

50. Discussed and analyzed how vocabulary is handled by each instructor, looking for effective practices • Created formative evaluations covering vocabulary, including vocabulary quizzes and vocabulary sheets for specific courses and sections and made these available to all instructors • Created department Primer on Critiques (Power Point and handout) that was made available to all instructors • Developed list of program-wide essential vocabulary • Revised CORs and syllabi to make essential vocabulary an explicit part of instruction in Foundations Courses: 2-D, 3-D Design, and Fundamentals of Drawing • Reviewed COEs for courses above Foundations level and determined that some realignment of enforced sequencing through COEs was appropriate, pending review of current program degrees and development of AA-Ts