OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES:
SLOs IN CORs?
Kevin Bontenbal, Cuesta College
Lesley Kawaguchi, Santa Monica College
Virginia May, Sacramento City College
2010 ASCCC Curriculum Institute
Santa Clara Marriott • July 8-10, 2010

After attending this session, participants
should be able to:
◦ Distinguish between “objectives” and “outcomes” as
they appear in the Course Outline of Record (COR).
◦ Explain and employ various contemporary models
of curriculum development.
◦ Develop curriculum at their campuses that is both
theoretically sound and attentive to local population
needs.

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Describes small, discreet skills
Requires basic thinking skills
Does not necessarily result in a product

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Knowledge
Skills
Abilities
Attitudes
that a student can demonstrate by the end of a
course, program, certificate or degree
Requires HIGHER LEVEL thinking
skills
 Synthesizes many discreet skills
 Requires students to APPLY what they’ve
learned
 Results in a product
 Product must be observed, evaluated, or
assessed by faculty


Academic Senate for California Community
Colleges (ASCCC)
◦ See ASCCC paper, Working with the 2002
Accreditation Standards: The Faculty Role (2005),
p. 12
◦ See Glossary

Accrediting Commission for Community and
Junior Colleges
◦ See March 2009 ACCJC Newsletter at
http://www.accjc.org/pdf/March%202009%20newsl
etter.pdf
Objectives:
 Develop a main
idea
 Maintain a clear
command of
tone
 Show control of
standard English
grammar
SLO
 Write essays,
including
research-based
writing,
demonstrating
academic
rhetorical
strategies and
documentation.

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Biology: Apply concepts of chemistry to
physiological systems
Speech: Deliverwell-researched speeches to
inform and persuade
Dental Hygiene: Demonstrate technique of
soft-tissue curettage on clinic patients
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Answer the following questions.
Push A if you think the statement is an SLO.
Push B if you think it’s an objective.

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(History course)
Identify key dates in
American History to
1865.
A. SLO
B. Objective
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
History Course: Students can demonstrate
factual and chronologically accurate
knowledge of key events, issues, trends, and
people of the relevant time period and
geographic region.
A. SLO
B. Objective
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(Engineering course) Functioning as a
member of a team, the student will design
and present a concrete structure which
complies with engineering standards.
A. SLO
B. Objective
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(Epidemiology course) Define and assess an
epidemic for a given population and
recommend factors influencing the use of
health services.
A. SLO
B. Objective

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(Sociology course) Demonstrate an
understanding that individuals (and their
families) must be regarded uniquely as
individuals with many contributing variables
such as multicultural issues.
A. SLO
B. Objective
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(Math course) Given data, students will
analyze information and create a graph that
is correctly titled and labeled, appropriately
designed, and accurately emphasizes the
most important data content.
A. SLO
B. Objective
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The college’s mission is peripheral to
program or departmental missions in matters
of curriculum development.
A. True
B. False
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The course outline of record MUST contain a
reference to critical thinking.
A. True
B. False
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Title 5 states that Student Learning Outcomes
need to be part of the Course Outline of
Record.
True
False
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Topic: Curriculum
Whereas, Curriculum and student success are areas where the
Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has
professional responsibility;
Whereas, Approximately 50% of California’s community colleges
that responded to surveys about placing Student Learning
Outcomes (SLOs) on the Course Outline of Record (COR) reported
their decision not to include SLOs on the COR, while other
colleges either did not respond or have not decided; and
Whereas, Housing SLOs in some other public domain entity can
still allow students, community members, and accrediting
agencies to review and track progress of SLOs at community
colleges;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community
Colleges encourage local senates to publish Student Learning
Outcomes (SLOs) in any appropriate public domain entity such as
the course outline of record, database, webpage, etc.
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Title 5 mandates that Student Learning
Outcomes must be on an individual
instructor’s syllabus.
True
False
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Must SLOs appear in the faculty members’
course syllabi?
Yes. The answer to this question appears at
the beginning of this article, in the quotation
from Standard II.A.6. The Commission
acknowledges that the use of the words
“learning objectives” in this standard appears
to be vestigial language from the 1994
Standards. The Commission changed the
words “learning objectives” to “student
learning outcomes” in January, 2010.
 There
is a standard definition of
“critical thinking” in both the Ed.
Code and Title 5 that can be
applied to all courses and
programs.
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A. True
B. False
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Formative and summative assessments are
mutually exclusive.
A. True
B. False
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What do we value in a course of study?

How do we demonstrate this?
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When do we apply these values to learning in
the classroom?

How do we evaluate student assignments?
◦ Formative assessment:
Student self-assessment
Feedback (a la Classroom
Assessment Techniques)
◦ Summative assessment:
Unit tests
Essays and papers
Midterms
Final exams
Capstone projects

Bloom (1956)

Wiggins and McTighe (1996)

Fink (2003)
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“Critical thinking skills are those diverse
cognitive processes and associated
attitudes critical to intelligent action in
diverse situations and fields that can be
improved by instruction or conscious
effort.”
Nancy Glock,
1987
 Please fill out the evaluations.
 The presentations will be posted
on the ASCCC website under the
Curriculum Institute within 2
weeks.