SLO Assessment Journey – The Cabrillo Library Experience
Georg Romero, Library Director, Cabrillo College Library
April 15, 2010
Introduction
 Presentation focus on services (free-range audience, hard to capture, challenging), not
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classes/workshops (captive audience, easier)
In 2005:
o Almost nothing available on assessing services, plenty on assessing classes
o Focus on starting & having SLOs
In 2010:
o A little more information available:
 Timely SLO survey from 2009, conducted by June Turner (Palo Verde)
 A few colleges have some services covered in their SLOs (Cabrillo, Cuyamaca, Los
Medanos)
 A few sessions like this one
o Focus is on measurement, & actions being taken
Getting Started
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So, how did we start in 2005?
Challenge: how to attribute specific learning outcome to quick transaction-based services?
Assumption: new requirement is not intended to be onerous, not expecting more effort than benefit
Decision: we will make this useful for us, not just pay lip service to a requirement
Early step: creation of campus “core” competencies (link)
Key: decision to measure service operations against the core competencies, rather than require
creating individual SLOs
o Affected: Library, Student Services, Learning Centers, etc.
o Minimized the fear & trepidation.
The Process
First step: what are our services?
 Regular faculty-driven meetings - invited all library staff, not just faculty librarians
 Identify all services, both direct & indirect
 Correlate services with core competencies
 Identify possible assessment/measurement methods, if any
 Some assessment alternatives identified, each with advantages/disadvantages:
o Narrative descriptions
o Focus groups
o Post-transaction sampling interviews/surveys
o User surveys
 Selected a survey assessment, as most actionable for the most services (& most useful to us)
The Results
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Key: SLO mindset among staff: “what are we teaching our students?”
Key: “Institutionalized” process as part of five-year program planning cycle
Regular annual library user surveys, regularly modified
Posted statistics & other data on web, so we can find & share them easily
Sailed through accreditation, with a commendation!
Looking back, would I change anything? No – shared voyage of discovery, how we got there almost
more important than where we arrived.
About Those Surveys…
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Having students self-assess on core competencies is legitimate (remaining two core competencies
to be included in Fall 2010 survey)
More than just the usual general satisfaction survey: we learned what students were doing, how long
they had been here, identified some service trouble-spots
Survey is changed regularly, to focus on current issues – look for patterns, survey comments, etc.
Discoveries & Actions
 Discovered students do believe the Library’s services & staff improve their learning
 Discovered:
o Strong dissatisfaction with aging laptops (we got new ones)
o Unhappiness with computer logon requirement (calmed down after first semester)
o Desire for more computers (working on it) and word processing (have it)
o Newer students less satisfied/impressed with library (we initiated a “greeter” program during
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1st wk of fall semesters, labor-intensive…)
Focused Circulation more on teaching/learning, less on punishment
Increased responsiveness of Technical Services to specific student needs
Increased “team” mindset across the board, & across functional boundaries
The Future
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Much left to be done:
o Much useful survey data not yet acted upon
o How to maintain SLO mindset in spite of staff changes, time, budget issues
o Update & submit campus Assessment forms…
Handy URLs
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http://pro.cabrillo.edu/pro/ - Campus Planning & Research, with links to SLOs, Accreditation, etc.
http://libwww.cabrillo.edu/staff/library-numbers.html - Cabrillo’s library statistics & data web page
http://libwww.cabrillo.edu/staff/slo/ - This presentation package
http://pages.paloverde.edu/staff/library/slosurvey.doc - CCL-EXEC survey on library SLOs, by Janine
Turner (Palo Verde College)