Defining and Documenting
Student Learning Outcomes
at Lamar State College-Port Arthur
Why assess student learning?
Improve quality of education Provide accountability to
 Student learning
 Students
 The student experience
 Employers
 Institutional effectiveness
 Parents
 Planning and budgeting
 External funding sources
 Transfer institutions
 SACS-COC
 THECB
Faculty Concerns
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“We already assess: grades.”
“This is additional work.”
“I’m too busy.”
“This violates my academic freedom.”
“Degree attainment demonstrates that SLOs are
attained.”
 “I don’t know how.”
 “When will this go away?”
 “We’re only doing this through the SACS study, then
we will just quit this assessment business.”
Why aren’t grades enough?
 Inconsistency between instructors teaching the same
courses – non-standardized grading practices.
 Grades may reflect student behaviors such as class
participation, attendance, citizenship, extra credit,
missed assignments, and other factors.
 Accuracy in assessment requires meaningful data
across sections, through time.
Sure, the students like our services and
programs, and they love our classes, but
what evidence do we have that what we
are doing is making a difference?
Assessment
turns colleges
from being
teacher-centered
to being
Student &
Learningcentered
Assessment, defined
Assessment is the systemic, methodical collection,
review, and use of information about educational
programs undertaken for the purpose of improving
student learning and development. -- (Palomba &
Banta, 1999)
A successful assessment program is
 Continuous and on-going
 Easy to administer
 Affordable
 Timely
 Meaningful
 Accessible to users
 Useful and pertinent
 The basis for future improvements
Questions Guiding Assessment
1. What should students learn from our educational
programs and experience?
2. How can we document and evaluate how well we
are teaching and how well students are learning?
3. What changes should we make to improve
teaching and learning?
4. Do the changes we make actually work?
Four levels of college assessment
Institutional level
2. Program/departmental level
1.
General education/core curriculum
b. Degree programs
c. Developmental education
d. Continuing education
3. Course level
4. Individual student level
a.
2a: Gen Ed/Core Curriculum
 Oral and written communication skills
 Critical thinking skills
 Mathematical problem-solving skills
 Information literacy
 Technology literacy
 Social and interpersonal skills
 Cultural/global/diversity skills
2c/2d: Developmental and
distance education
 Developmental education is assessed by performance
in the next level course
 Distance education is assessed by its equivalency to
traditionally-delivered course material.
2b: Assessing departments,
degrees, and programs
Where to start?
 Catalog descriptions
 Syllabi and course outlines
 Course assignments and tests
 Textbooks (esp. tables of contents, introductions, and
summaries
 Colleagues
 Professional associations
The vocabulary of assessment

Value-added – the increase in learning that occurs during a course, program, or undergraduate
education (Leskes, 2002)
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Absolute learning outcome - assesses a learner's achievement against an absolute standard or criterion
of performance
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Embedded assessment - a means of gathering information about student learning that is integrated
into the teaching-learning process
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Authentic assessment - requires students to actively accomplish complex and significant tasks, while
bringing to bear prior knowledge, recent learning, and relevant skills to solve realistic or authentic
problems
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Formative assessment - the gathering of information about student learning-during the progression of
a course or program and usually repeatedly-to improve the learning of those students (Leskes, 2002)
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Summative assessment - the gathering of information at the conclusion of a course, program, or
undergraduate career to improve learning or to meet accountability demands (Leskes, 2002)
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Triangulation – multiple lines of evidence point to the same conclusion

Quantitative - methods that rely on numerical scores or ratings

Qualitative - methods that rely on descriptions rather than numbers
SLO = ?
A.
Student Life Organization
B.
Special Liquor Order
C.
Student Learning Outcomes
D. Space Liaison Officer
Student Learning Outcomes, defined
“Learning outcomes are statements of knowledge, skills,
and abilities the individual student possesses and can
demonstrate upon completion of a learning experience
or sequence of learning experiences (e.g., course,
program, degree).” (Barr, McCabe, and Sifferlen, 2001)
SMART SLOs
 Smart
Hmmm….
 Measurable
 Attainable
 Realistic and Results-Oriented
 Timely
Good learning outcomes are:
 Learner centered
 Key to the course, program, and institutional mission
 Meaningful to both students and faculty
 Measurable
SLOs at Different Levels
 Course Level: Students who complete this course can
calculate and interpret a variety of descriptive and
inferential statistics.
 Program Level: Students who complete the
Psychology program can use statistical tools to analyze
and interpret data from psychological studies.
 Institutional Level: Graduates from our campus can
apply quantitative reasoning to real-world problems.
Program-level SLOs vs
Course-level SLOs
 Program-level SLOs (PSLOs) are a holistic picture of
what is expected of students completing a defined
program or course of study.
 PSLOs should reflect the total learning experiences in
the program – not just the courses taken.
 Course-level SLOs (CSLOs) are a holistic picture of
what is expected of students completing a particular
course.
 CSLOs should be related to the PSLOs and the
institutional mission.
Writing Student Learning Outcomes
1.
Identify what the student should learn:
a.
b.
c.
What should the student be expected to know?
What should the student be expected to be able to do?
How is a student expected to be able to think?
2.
Keep the outcomes to a single, simple sentence
3.
Be as specific as possible
4.
Use active verbs that describe an observable or identifiable action
(see Bloom’s Taxonomy)
5.
Identify success criteria
6.
Think about how you will measure the outcomes (documentation,
artifacts, evidence)
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge
Higherorder,
critical
thinking
Lowerorder,
recall
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Evaluation: To judge the quality of something
based on its adequacy, value, logic, or use.
Synthesis: To create something, to integrate ideas
into a solution, to propose an action plan, to formulate
a new classification scheme.
Higherorder,
critical
thinking
Analysis: To identify the organizational structure of
something; to identify parts, relationships, and
organizing principles.
Application: To apply knowledge to new situations,
to solve problems.
Comprehension: To understand, interpret, compare and
Contrast, explain.
Knowledge: To know specific facts, terms, concepts,
principles, or theories.
Lowerorder,
recall
What are the problems
with these SLOs?
 The student will complete a self-assessment survey.
 The student will appreciate the benefits of exercise.
 The student will develop problem-solving skills and
conflict resolution skills.
 The student will strengthen his/her writing skills.
 100% of students will demonstrate competency in
managing a database.
.
Stronger SLOs
(“Students will be able to” is assumed)
 Articulate five health-related stress impacts on the
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body.
Analyze a nutrition food label and explain various
components of that food label and their relation to
healthy food choices.
Apply principles of logical argument in their writing.
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of open and
closed source software development models.
Demonstrate appropriate First Aid procedures on a
heart attack victim.
SLO Assessment
 Is designed to improve student learning
 Is faculty-driven
 Is an on-going, not episodic, process
 Is important to “close the loop” or act on the findings
 Is about evaluating the effectiveness of programs,
courses, and services, not individual students or
individual instructors.
Meaningful
SLO Assessment is Measureable
Sustainable
Process for measuring SLOs
Create written
statements of
measureable SLOs
Use results to
improve student
learning
Evaluate student
performance,
assemble data, and
report results
Set
benchmarks
Choose the
evaluation
tools
Set standards for
levels of
performance on
each SLO
Identify observable factors that
provide the basis for assessing
which level of performance has
been achieved
Good evidence is
 Relevant – meaningful
 Verifiable – reproducible
 Representative – sample size
 Cumulative – over time
 Actionable – usable results
Using a Rubric
A rubric is simply a table in which you connect your
student learning objective to the measurement of
success. The next development activity will cover
rubrics more thoroughly.
Accomplished
(3)
Competent
(2)
Developing
(1)
SLO 1
Success
Criteria
Success
Criteria
Success
Criteria
SLO 2
Success
Criteria
Success
Criteria
Success
Criteria
SLO 3
Success
Criteria
Success
Criteria
Success
Criteria
SLO 4
Success
Criteria
Success
Criteria
Success
Criteria
Not Observed
(0)
Identifying Success Criteria
Example from Medical Office Administration Program
PSLO
Developing
(1)
Competent
(2)
Accomplished
(3)
Not
Observed
(0)
Apply current
trends in
medical
insurance,
HIPAA
guidelines, and
coding systems.
Occasional
insight of
insurance trends
and understands
current coding
systems.
Moderate
insight and
analysis of
insurance trends
and usually able
to locate a code.
Exceptional insight
and analysis of
insurance trends
and mastery of the
technique for
locating a medical
code.
Not enough
information
to assess.
The success criteria are the benchmarks of successful attainment
of the SLO. The example above is for a Program, but the concept
and process can also be applied to Course-level assessment.
Rating
SLO Evidence: Direct Measures
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Comprehensive/capstone exams or assignments
Licensure examinations
Professionally judged performances/demonstrations
Portfolios (documented learning experiences)
Value-added measures (pre/post testing, longitudinal
studies and analyses)
Standardized tests (CAAP, CLA)
Case studies
Embedded questions
Simulations
Rubrics
SLO Evidence: Indirect Measures
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Student satisfaction surveys
Alumni satisfaction surveys
Employer satisfaction surveys
Grades
Retention rates
Graduation rates/surveys
Placement rates (employment or transfer institutions)
Focus groups/group interviews
Advisory committee recommendations
Reflective essays
Test Mapping
Test mapping is a process by which you identify which
questions on your exams match up to the SLOs you’ve
identified for the Program or Course and to the level of
cognitive activity the question requires, using Bloom’s
Taxonomy of measurable verbs. Use one map per test.
Today we are going over one portion of test mapping –
matching up the test questions to the SLOs. In the
near future we will have a development activity that
covers test mapping more thoroughly.
Example of a Test Map
This example of a test map comes from a Program, but
the process also works at the Course level.
PSLO 2. Demonstrates awareness of
cultural differences and similarities
2a. Identifies cultural characteristics
(including beliefs, values, perspectives,
and/or practices
Test Question Number
5, 8, 9, 12
2b. Interprets works of human expression 20, 21, 30
within cultural contexts.
2c. Shows awareness of one’s own culture
in relation to others.
(If you don’t have any questions that
match up to the SLO, then leave a blank.)
Save Copies of All Work!
Please make a habit of
Saving at least 10 random copies of all student
work; photocopies or electronic copies are fine.
Ideally you should save examples of excellent,
mediocre, and poor work.
Saving all scoring rubrics for performances or
demonstrations if you use them or as you develop
them.
Creating and saving a test map for all Scantron,
multiple choice, short answer, and essay tests.
When in doubt, SAVE COPIES.