Student Learning Outcomes and Assessment
Student success is the primary measure of institutional effectiveness at Foothill College. The faculty, staff, and administrators measure success by how well students do in achieving their learning outcomes, and by their continued success at transfer universities, in the workplace, and as citizens.
Student learning outcomes (SLOs) in themselves are familiar to us as educators. They are the verb-begun statements, often based on Bloom’s taxonomy, that define the specific knowledge, skills and abilities that we expect our students to master in our classes. SLOs measure student success by course completion, grades, program persistence, degrees and certificates, and transfer rate, as well as by societal, technical, and workforce preparation. Foothill has defined four core competencies (4-Cs) in addition to the competencies defined by specific disciplines as SLOs expected of every graduate leaving Foothill.
What’s different here is that SLOs are just the first step in a recursive process of research, review, and re-thinking. In other words, where once we just defined our outcomes, we now describe our students’ mastery of these outcomes, and also develop methods of re-teaching as needed. This is the cycle of assessment and inquiry that you have been hearing about so much.
Calendars
- 2009-10 Planning Calendar (Coming Soon)
Timeline of events and deadlines leading up to accreditation.
- 2009-10 Timeline of Events
Office of Instruction proposed series of professional development events to support the work of assessing student learning outcomes.
Faculty Toolbox
Course Student Learning Outcomes
- SLOS
Public database of course student learning outcomes that are currently in the process of being assessed.
- Assessment
Password protected database where faculty access their student learning outcomes, upload rubrics, measure their outcomes, and reflect on the assessment process for each outcome.
Program Student Learning Outcomes
- SLOS
Coming Fall 2009 after the Program Planning & Review Cycle
- Assessment
Coming Fall 2009 after the Program Planning & Review Cycle
Institutional Student Learning Outcomes
- SLOs
Definitions and rubrics for each of Foothill College's institutional outcomes.
- Assessment
FRAMES is an acronym for Foothill’s Rubric Assessment Model for Evaluating SLOs and consists of four assessment tools to enhance and measure each of Foothill College's institutional student learning outcomes at the course level.
- Archives
History of the development and implementation of Institutional SLOs through the League for Innovations 21st Century Learning Outcomes Project
Administrative Unit Outcomes
- AUOs
Coming Fall 2009 after the Program Planning & Review Cycle
- Assessment
Coming Fall 2009 after the Program Planning & Review Cycle
Service Area Outcomes
- SAOs
Coming Fall 2009 after the Program Planning & Review Cycle
- Assessment
Coming Fall 2009 after the Program Planning & Review Cycle
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