From October 4-6, a contingent of Santa Rosa Junior College instructors and administrators attended and presented at the “Strengthening Student Success Conference: What Counts” in San Diego. This conference was sponsored by the Research and Planning Group of California and the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching and Learning, among others. The purpose of the conference was to bring together California community college practitioners to share new ideas and current assessment practices in student learning outcomes.
Institutional Researcher KC Greaney spearheaded a team including Terri Frongia, Micca Gray, Matt Greaney, and Gary Allen, who, in cooperation with Marcy Alancraig from Cabrillo College, presented a workshop on “Writing General Education Student Learning Outcomes or Core competencies.” Gary Allen also led a team consisting of Matt Greaney, Victor Cummings, and Marti Estrin. They facilitated a workshop entitled “Choosing and Using: Assessment Tools and Findings.” This workshop used as models student learning outcome assessment tools currently in use at SRJC in our Political Science, Life Sciences, and ESL departments.
Finally, in recognition of the valuable work Project LEARN has done in developing institutional goals, KC Greaney was recruited to participate in an intercollegiate workshop entitled, “General Education Smorgasbord: Techniques for Assessing General Education Outcomes.” KC, along with presenters from Los Medanos and Cabrillo, presented what SRJC has done in the initial stages of defining institutional outcomes and including student learning outcomes in the program review process.
Project LEARN Ahead
While your colleagues are still working on the 31 projects that got started last year, now is the time to start discussing which courses in your department to assess next, ones that would benefit from a long-term collaborative and systematic examination of student learning outcomes. Department chairs will be getting more information at the first DCC/IM meeting in 2007, but for this round of projects, be aware there will be greater emphasis on assessing courses that serve large numbers of students, are taught by multiple instructors, or play an important role in a program.
SLOs & PDA
On the PDA Institutional Day on 1/16, you'll have two opportunities to catch up on SLO developments during afternoon workshops:
Gathering of Assessors: This session will bring together learning outcomes assessment project team members and Project LEARN committee volunteers instrumental in creating the learning assessment processes now being implemented at SRJC. After a Project LEARN progress overview, team members in attendance will be invited to make brief project reports as well as share wisdom, project benefits, pitfalls, unexpected consequences, etc. Future projects steps will also be quickly introduced. Interested spectators are also welcome to attend to get in on SRJC's outcomes assessment action.
Outcomes are the Objective! Come to this workshop and leave with written outcomes statements for a course of your choice. As the Academic Senate has voted to support putting SLOs onto course outlines of record, it is time for everyone to sort out the outcomes vs. objectives distinction. Participants will be invited to bring copies of course outlines.
As the new Outcomes Assessment Facilitator, I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and explain why I agreed to take on this challenging task.
My name is Gary Allen, and I have been an English, literature, and ESL instructor for over 25 years, the last 15 here at Santa Rosa Junior College. Teaching a subject matter which is primarily skills-based like ESL, instructors are often involved in an on-going process of trying different techniques and materials in order to help student develop their language abilities as effectively as possible. When I first got involved with the learning outcomes effort here at SRJC, I thought, "Aha! This just gives us a framework in which to structure our experimentation." So, for me, it seemed like a natural evolution to a more formal outcomes process.
I have been involved in the SLO effort here at SRJC from the beginning. I was one of the initial members of the Developmental Education and ESL Task Force, and with other members of this committee, I presented at several PDA workshops on strategies for working with developmental students. I was also part of the initial SRJC team which attended the Assessment in Higher Education Conference in San Ramon. Furthermore, with other teams on campus, I have attended conferences on learning outcomes at Chabot College and in San Mateo. Being involved with the SRJC slo process from its initial brainstorming stages, through the formation of committees, into the writing of the handbook and through various training efforts, I have learned a tremendous amount from my colleagues at both SRJC and other institutions. There is always more to learn, however, and I look forward to developing more ways to question the efficacy of my teaching techniques.
I agreed to take the job because I believe in the value of collaborative dialogue, and to me that is the single most useful part of the learning outcomes effort--you talk to your colleagues about basic outcomes, design a tool to measure student success, discuss the results, and implement change. I believe that this process can be rejuvenating and a great help in creating productive teaching relationships. And the ultimate winners are our students, who benefit from a more coherent curriculum.
Additionally, I am committed to keeping discipline faculty in control of their assessment projects --you should be free to choose the course you want to look at, free to define the outcomes, free to develop the assessment tool, and free to disseminate the results in the way you deem most effective. In my mind, outcome projects are only meaningful if they are faculty-driven.
Finally, I very much look forward to working with my colleagues across campus in a variety of disciplines. I'm sure I will learn as much from you as you from me.
Sincerely,
Gary Allen
For the past two years, the District has been laying the groundwork
for Project LEARN, Learning Enhancement Through Assessment and ReflectioN,
SRJC’s learning outcomes assessment initiative. These efforts
are, in part, our response to evidence that has been building for more
than a decade across the country that assessing outcomes and adapting
instruction to improve them can significantly increase student learning
and improve retention and program completion. The Accrediting Commission
for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) of the Western Association
of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
adopted new accreditation standards in June 2002 that require attention
to learning outcomes assessment. These new standards, available through
the Commission’s Web site
at http://www.accjc.org call on
all colleges to focus on instructional improvement by assessing student
learning outcomes at the course, program and institutional levels.
In spring 2003, the Institutional
Planning Council (IPC) at SRJC determined
that the effort to institute student learning outcomes should be spearheaded
by the Educational
Planning and Coordinating Council (EPCC) as that
body is co-chaired by the Academic Senate President and the Vice President
of Academic Affairs. Victor Cummings, Dean of Letters and Social Sciences
and EPCC member and KC Greaney (nee Boatsman), Director of Institutional
Research, were asked to initiate the effort and report back regularly
to EPCC.
In fall 2003, IPC developed new Institutional Goals for the
2004-2006 academic years. One of the six institutional goals is focused
on developing student learning outcomes assessment throughout the District.
The goal reads as follows:
The college will develop a comprehensive
program of student learning outcomes assessment, the data and analysis
from which will drive a cycle of continuous improvement based on
a culture of evidence.
During the same time period, the District committed
to having a student learning outcomes assessment focus at both PDA
Days scheduled for the 2004-05 academic year.
In January 2004, a group of eight (including
six faculty) attended a special training opportunity in San Ramon.
Out of this think-tank experience, the group proposed a plan for developing
three committees to begin implementing learning outcomes assessment
at SRJC: one committee to focus on institutional student learning outcomes,
one on course and program-level learning outcomes, and one on communicating
and educating the college community about student learning outcomes.
This general strategy was endorsed by EPCC, and the three committees
were formed (i-LEARN, cp-LEARN,
and e-LEARN).
In spring 2005, recognizing
the need for a strongly coordinated effort, a Project LEARN oversight
committee was formed, consisting of the co-chairs of the three committees
and other key individuals (see organizational
chart). It is the responsibility
of the steering committee to provide leadership for the District’s
efforts to implement learning outcomes assessment and to serve as a
sounding board and coordinating body for the three Project LEARN committees.
In
the summer of 2005, the steering committee reviewed the committee
structure. It was decided that to divide the cp-LEARN committee into
two groups. c-LEARN will continue to develop course level assessment
materials and review course assessment proposals. The new committee
is pg-LEARN whose focus is developing program assessment. Both committees
will work closely with faculty and departments.
Also the steering committee
decided to de-activate the e-LEARN committee. Its functions of publicity
and training would be absorbed by the steering committee. The web
site is up and each committee will be responsible for submitting additional
documents and updates.
In the spring and summer of 2005, the steering
committee proposed a Project Facilitator (40% faculty reassigned
time position) to help the college community develop student learning
projects. The Facilitator is also responsible for coordinating assessment
training and is part of the steering committee.
