Becoming one with the SLO The Zen Of Assessment of SLOs And Rubric Writing

Sample SLO: English 114 Core Competency: Communication Skill Students present their ideas in a clear and organized way to others SLO: Students compose essays using a variety of rhetorical modes that support and develop a thesis statement.

Writing Rubric  Quality  Criteria No Proficiency LimitedSomeProficiencyHighScore Thesis/ Clarity Thesis missing Reader cannot determine Thesis Thesis is vague or loosely related Thesis and purpose are fairly clear to task Thesis and purpose are clear, match task OrganizationDisorganizedUnclear organization, confusing Some signs of organization Organized sequence, but could be improved Organized sequence of ideas is effective SupportNo support for ideas or details Underdevelop ed support of ideas, off- topic, errors Offers support of obvious details Some solid support, assumptions not all clear Substantial, logical, & concrete support of all ideas ConventionsPoor grammar and usage, meaning unclear Weak grammar, usage, so very hard to understand Repeated weaknesses in mechanics and usage Errors that do not interfere with meaning Essentially error free

How It All Began: The 4 Core Competencies SWC Core Competencies were developed and approved through shared governance. They identify: Outcomes we want for our students Skills in which we want our students to develop competency during their studies at SWC

All SLOs are based on one or more of our identified core competencies: 1. Communication 2. Thinking and Reasoning 3. Information Competency 4. Global Awareness SWC’s 4 Core Competencies

SLOs Communicated to Students Course Description: overview Course Objectives: what is covered SLOs: Core skills that students should be able to do after course Measurement/Grades: assess results of achievement

Here’s the SLO Flow Course LevelProgram Level General EducationTransferVocational OccupationLife Long Learning

Course SLOs: (Keep it Simple) Communicate to students what they should be able to do upon the successful completion of the course SLO language should be comprehensible and meaningful to our students Goal is that students will participate more in their learning by working toward the clear outcomes Methods of evaluation of SLOs and course learning should be comprehensible and meaningful

Assessment of SLOs (pending District sunshining SLOs workload) The concept is that all faculty will have district support and time to meet to: Analyze assessment results Use results to plan instructional improvements Make results available to college and community

Academic Program Review and SLOs Concept is that SLO Assessment results are posted in eLumen or in annual updates of the Summary Work Plan Discussion of SLOs by Full-time and Part- time faculty document with program meeting notes The goal is instructional improvement based on instructor and student feedback as well as SLO results

Use of Rubrics A rubric is a set of scoring guidelines for evaluating student work Rubrics are used to communicate to the student the clear criteria on which their work will be evaluated Rubrics assist in the development of metacognitive skills (learning how to learn) so students can fully participate and are partners with us in their learning outcomes

What the heck is eLumen?! eLumen is a proprietary software used to house SLO measurement results Why is it important? Accreditation currently requires SLOs and SLO assessment To date, our District has not gone live with eLumen

If SLO workload is successfully negotiated… Your faculty can get started by: Organizing who will take the lead Identifying how to discuss assessments F2F or electronically? Listing types of measurements used to assess SLOs Will you develop a student survey for qualitative feedback on SLOs? Will you use Rubrics? Will you post results in eLumen or APR?

Where are we at with SLOs? Our District has not sunshined workload specific to SLOs Repeated, good faith efforts have been made by faculty to pilot rubric-writing Fall semester ’09 our SLO Committee arranged for several faculty volunteers to pilot rubric-writing and eLumen in exchange for flex in spring ‘10

Where are we with SLOs? Our District has asked for a meeting to discuss flex for this pilot program To date our District will only approve flex for SLO activities formally offered through Staff Development Our committee recommends this workload issue be placed on Department and School meeting agendas for discussion