LEARNING OUTCOMES COUNCIL
August 28, 2014 Minutes
Approved – September 11, 2014
Co-Chairs:
Present:
Absent:
Recorder:
Berta Cuaron, Wendy Nelson, Marty Furch
Melinda Carrillo, April Cunningham, Berta Cuaron, Sarah De Simone, Kelly Falcone,
Erin Feld, Marty Furch, Michael Gilkey, John Harland, Cheryl Kearse, Norma
Miyamoto, Michael Mufson, Wendy Nelson, Rocco Versaci
Michelle Barton, Adrian Gonzales, Robert Deegan, Debra Doerfler, Mollie Smith,
Brian Stockert
Marti Snyder
The meeting was called to order by LOC Co-Chair Marty Furch at 2:08 p.m.
1. Approve Minutes 04/24/14
MSC Mufson, Feld.
2. Announcements
Marty reported that there will be a SLO facilitators meeting at 12 p.m., directly prior to the Department
Chairs and Directors meeting on Friday September 5. The focus will be to provide an orientation and to
set the tone for the year regarding what each department should be doing with SLOs for the semester.
Marty reported that the Accreditation Self-Evaluation 2015 is in its finals stages. It will be sent to SPC for
first reading by mid-September, at which time it will then be available for public view by the campus
community. Marty encouraged the council to pay special attention to Standard II.A, as it pertains to
SLOs. She and Berta confirmed that they will bring Standard II.A to an upcoming Learning Outcomes
Council for discussion.
Wendy reported that there will be a Brown Bag event on Wednesday, September 10 from 1-2:00 p.m. in
H-306, as the first of five sessions to discuss RE Discover GE. The focus of these sessions is to engage in
an examination of what General Education means for Palomar College faculty and students. A newsletter
will be sent out next week to announce the meeting dates and introduce the RE Discover GE website.
Marty and Wendy will be holding office hours in the SLOAC office in MD-269 in order to provide SLO
support to faculty. An announcement of office hours will be coming soon.
3. GE Conference
Wendy reported that the RE Discover GE team, attended a conference at the University of Vermont,
funded with SPPF funds requested by LOC. The conference was not focused predominantly on SLOs,
but rather on General Education.
The dialogue regarding the importance of GE has not happened at Palomar College in a very long
time. There is an opportunity to change the attitude from GE as only a vehicle to a larger goal, to GE
itself as an important goal.
RE Discover GE was a discussion topic for faculty plenary. As mentioned in announcements, there will
be five Brown Bag events to stimulate conversation about what is going on at Palomar College and
nationwide with GE. The goal is to bring a team together to look at the general education program. If
any action is decided upon, there will be a crossover with curriculum.
4. Approve Writing Final Rubric
Wendy mentioned that IR&P has provided a list of faculty members who have courses that are mapped
to writing, most of which are English courses. She will start contacting people to participate in the
Written Communication assessment.
Feedback on the rubric was solicited, resulting in some need for clarification on the purpose for the
additional questions beyond the use of a 1-5 grading scale. The additional evaluation criteria was
included as a means to expand on the holistic approach of the rubric by identifying the areas with which
students are struggling and also in which they are excelling. Due to questions raised regarding the
additional evaluation criteria, Wendy offered to review the rubric again with Michael Large and revisit
the rubric with LOC in two weeks for additional feedback.
Training for faculty using the rubric will begin late-September.
5. Course SLO & Program SLO update
Marty gave a summary of the statistics for program and course SLOs as follows:
 88% of courses, 93% of programs have SLOs
 41% of courses, 62% of programs with results, no action date
 36% of courses, 54% of programs with without SLO assessment results
Marty and Wendy will provide support to programs and faculty so they can develop SLOs, conduct
assessments of the data, and identify the actions to be taken as a result of that data. The goals are to identify and evaluate SLOs carefully and intentionally.
6. SLO Checklist
Marty and Wendy introduced “Effective Guidelines for Program Learning Outcomes,” which can be used
by programs as a tool for self-evaluation in terms of accreditation and program
improvement/development. Marty reviewed the checklist and mentioned that it will be taken to the
SLO facilitators meeting next week for review.
The council members suggested that a template be provided to SLO facilitators in order to better
illustrate an effective method and manage a timeline for SLOs. Marty mentioned that she will provide a
template during the facilitators meeting next week.
7. Role of LOC
This item will be addressed at the next meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:28 p.m.
Next Meeting: September 11, 2014
2:00-3:30 p.m.
AA 140