What are Lane’s Core Learning Outcomes (CLOs), and Why do they matter to me? Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Explicit Outcomes Language Spring Conference 2015 May 1st Kate Sullivan, CLO Coordinator

What the heck are CLOs? Transferable skills that students in both general education and C/T will learn through and across the curriculum Descriptions of abilities and habits of mind: what should our students know and be able to do as a result of a 21 st century college education? Aspirational goals, articulated in outcome language, to communicate clearly to students and other stakeholders, the value of a college education

Why do CLOs Matter to Me? Related to our strategic direction: “Equip students to become global citizens with the broad knowledge and transferable skills characterizing a liberal education approach” “Promote students' progression to goal completion by knowing our students and creating needed systems, processes and learning environments”

They help us reframe student misperceptions Rebecca Cox, College Fear Factor: Students misunderstand what college is: they perceive college as focused on the transmission of information and “right answers” instead of engagement, critical thinking, and learning to “ask the right questions” CLOs help students understand that they aren’t going to college to have a smart teacher tell them what to think; they are coming to college to learn to think for themselves

Why don’t students get this already? Don’t we have banners all over campus? Students receive competing information from a variety of sources (web site, faculty, syllabi, advisors, other students, rate my professors, signage, etc.) There are many competing messages: “college isn’t worth the money”; “liberal arts means you’ll be working at Starbucks”; “general education is something you get out of the way” Thus, institutions need to have everyone on the same page: “Messages must be consistent, reinforced, repeated” (Humphreys) Reinforcing the value of our CLOs is everyone’s—faculty, staff, managers--responsibility

In Other Words... CLOs help us speak in a shared language and unified voice to students and other constituents They indicate what we value and why we matter: 1. CLOs: introduce students to the vocabulary of academic discourse in a very intentional way: they are a mechanism to help students achieve, to borrow a phrase from Vincent Tinto, “incorporation” into the institution (and, therefore, persist) (441). 2. As such they form part of a “toolkit” that students can use to decipher how to behave, what language to use, and how to adopt and adapt a college identity--to value not just the acquisition of facts and data but also the development of what David Conley calls “habits of mind,” such as critical thinking and active engagement. 3. They foster the metacognition that is crucial for student success.

So, what does all this mean for all of us? All staff on campus can make CLOs visible to students by including CLO language in our conversations with students and in our printed materials (especially syllabi, assignments, forms, handouts, etc.) When we witness students engaging in an outcome—Think, Engage, Communicate, Create, Apply—we can foreground the skill/behavior to the student, whatever the context (classroom learning, co-curricular activity, work study, etc.) We can work together to define what CLOs mean within a course or program and across campus (e.g., what does “engage” mean in the context of student involvement in the ASLCC?) We can map CLOs against course and program outcomes and department and service goals

For Staff, specifically We can: ◦ Reinforce an understanding that learning occurs both inside and outside the classroom; indeed, we can create situations where students apply what they learn in the classroom to their life outside the classroom and vice versa ( ◦ Be consistent in communicating what we see as our educational purpose: to “transform lives through learning” and to ensure that students gain facility with our five CLOs

For Faculty, specifically We can: Map CLOs against course, sequence, and program outcomes Produce signature assignments Construct rubrics for assessment Assess student artifacts

Works Consulted Bers, Trudy H. “Community College Strategies: Assessing ‘High Apple’ Programs in Community Colleges: Fruit or Worms?” Assessment Updates 18.6 (November-December 2006): “Assessment at the Program Level.” New Directions for Community Colleges (Summer 2004): Conley, David. Redefining College Readiness. Eugene, Oregon: Educational Policy Improvement Center, Cox, Rebecca. Beyond the Fear Factor Workshop, Lane Community College. September 20, 2013, Eugene, OR Gee, James Paul. “What is Literacy?” Journal of Education (1989): Humphrey, Debra. The Value of General Education. AAC&U Workshop, Burlington, VT, June 10, Tinto, Vincent. “Stages of Student Departure.” Journal of Higher Education 59.4 (1988):