Hello All:

It seems that there are a few concerns out there regarding the creation, submission, and evaluation of the course level SLOs that many of you are working on.  Hopefully, I can clarify some of the issues, but before I attempt to do so, let me encourage you to continually raise your concerns.  The committee is in the midst of creating the process, so your input is very helpful to us.  As you can see on the course outline of record form, there is a new heading for Student Learning Outcomes.  Unfortunately, the Methods of Evaluation heading has not been changed yet, but as you write your SLOs, address this section with the new heading in mind – Methods of Assessing Student Learning Outcomes.  Part of the process of rewriting student objectives to Student Learning Outcomes is rethinking your methods of evaluation.  As a committee, we will be reviewing both the Student Learning Outcomes and your Methods of Assessing those outcomes.  Approaching this process as a whole rather than addressing its parts is designed to help focus reflection on what you do and what you expect your students to be able to do after completing your courses.  On the website is an excellent resource for this activity, “The Outcomes Primer.”  I also have templates that can lead you through the process, and we hope to have these available on the website soon.  Once you submit your course revision/updates, the SLO committee will review and evaluate your SLOs and Assessment strategies.  If the committee believes the submission needs additional development in either area, we will return the curriculum to you with suggestions for revision.  I’d like to think that this process can be completed without the faculty having to make a presentation to the committee.  If, for some reason, consensus between the committee and the faculty member can’t be reached, then I can foresee a possible meeting, but the goal of the committee is to support the faculty member’s content expertise while helping them frame the SLOs in an appropriate fashion.  Once submitted and accepted by the SLO committee, the curriculum is forwarded to the dean, then through the other constituents and avenues of the approval process.

All courses submitted as of November 2, 2006 have been made into packets for the SLO committee’s review which will begin on November 6.  We hope to complete the process for those courses on that day, but if not, the committee has scheduled another meeting for November 13.  It is my expectation that our review process for the courses submitted will be completed no later than that date.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please email me.  Thanks,

Kurt