What the*!?# is an SLO?

1. What the*!?# is an SLO? Workshop on Student Learning Outcomes For De Anza College Faculty

2. What do you Already Know? Quickie Quiz on SLOs • Answer multiple choice questions with the best answer • Answer the others as True or False

3. 1. A Student Learning Outcomes refers to student demonstration of: A) Knowledge B) Skills C) Abilities D) Attitudes E) All of the Above

4. 2. The ACCJC standards require that SLOs are written and assessed in: A) Courses B) Programs C) Degrees and Certificates D) Student Services and the Library E) All of the above • Place where you think De Anza is at this moment

5. 3. Course SLOs should cover: A) Discipline Knowledge B) Discipline Skills C) Discipline values and beliefs D) Answers A and B only E) All of the above

6. True or False 4. An SLO is really the same thing as an objective in our course

7. True or False 5. According the the Academic Senate and the ACCJC, writing SLOs and designing assessments for them is a faculty responsibility

8. True or False 6. Faculty members can write different SLOs for the same course

9. SLO 101 “This is an evolution of best teaching practices, not a revolution” Lars Kjeseth, El Camino College

10. What is an SLO? • Knowledge • Skills • Abilities • Attitudes that a student can demonstrate by the end of a course, program, certificate or degree

11. SLOs: The Big Picture • Requires HIGHER LEVEL thinking skills • Synthesizes many discreet skills • Requires students to APPLY what they’ve learned • Results in a product • Product must be evaluated or assessed by faculty

12. Must be written for • Courses • Programs, including GE and vocational • Degrees and Certificates • Library and Student Services

13. Who? • Faculty, as discipline experts, must write SLOs

14. Why? • Covering material doesn’t guarantee that students learn it • Must demonstrate it • Transparency is key • Practice is also key

15. Where Should SLOs live? • Course Outline of Record? • Addendum to COR? • Somewhere else? • According to ACCJC, objectives must be in syllabus • Good idea if SLOs are also

16. Remember SLOs: The Big Picture Requires HIGHER LEVEL thinking skills Synthesizes many discreet skills Requires students to APPLY what they’ve learned Results in a product Product must be evaluated or assessed by faculty

17. Objective: Nuts and Bolts • Describes small, discreet skills • Requires basic thinking skills • Do not necessarily result in a product

18. SLO versus Objective Activity • Answer the questions on the handout • Hint: Some of the examples are neither an SLO or objective

19. Sample SLOs

20. Course Outline Activity • Look at your CORs • Which objectives listed may actually be outcomes? • Which could be combined to become an outcome? • Which are objectives?

21. Writing SLOs Activity • Look at Guide to Writing SLOs • Access course outlines through ECMS • Use the Bloom’s Taxonomy charts to write SLOs for both your classes, either creating new ones or revising what’s on your COR • Afterwards, use the checklist to see how you’ve done • Officially document SLOs on the Documentation Form

22. Let’s Get to Work and Write Some SLOs!

24. What the *&%#! Is Course Embedded Assessment? Assessing Course SLOs

25. Course-Embedded Assessment: Expanded Grading • Uses assignments produced in class – papers, projects, portfolios, presentations • Grades them with rubrics or other explicitly stated criteria shared with students in advance! • Results analyzed, resulting in changes to improve student learning and teaching

26. How is this different from grading? • Assignment analyzed for how it informs you about the SLO • Is not the cumulative grade of the course • May only use parts of the assignment • Focus is on what it reveals about teaching and learning, not how individual students performed

27. Think “Sampling” • Not every assignment in a class is used • But enough evidence must be gathered and assessed to get a good sampling of students and their work

28. Choose An Assignment • Look at the course SLOs you wrote earlier • Choose a major assignment you already give in that class that you feel addresses the SLOs • If you only give tests, choose specific questions that require higher level thinking skills and address the SLO

29. So What’s a Rubric? • A very detailed grading scale for one assignment • A descriptor of each level of achievement

30. Why Rubrics Rock • Great for students • Doesn’t impinge on your academic freedom • May make your teaching life easier • Caveat: Doesn’t work for multiple choice exams

31. How do Rubrics Work? • Rows: Criteria of rating • Columns: Levels of mastery • Beginner • Developed • Accomplished • Cells: Describes work at each level of mastery • Build from strengths and weaknesses you’ve seen in student work over the years

32. Sample Rubrics • Grid • Narrative with points • Combined with Grading Sheet

33. Advice: Rubrics are • As individual as instructor and assignment • Works in progress, always changing • Something students should see in advance

34. Activity • Choose one particular major assignment • Use workbook to create a rubric for it • Share with folks at your table

35. Where do you go from Here? • Next Steps