The time to start thinking about Student Learning Outcomes Assessment is NOW! Here are some steps to start you off on the right foot –
1. Think about what your office does that affects student learning (in any way, shape, or form)
2. Put that action/effort/activity into a statement of the form “Students will be able to ”
3. Think about how that can be (really) measured
4. Consider what you would do with the results (would it be meaningful?)
5. Select the top three to five
Once you’ve done this much, take a breather and share your progress with the rest of the Division via this blog.
Over the next month, we’ll have more specifics for beginning to work on the SLOs!
Would you please clarify the difference between objectives and learning outcomes. Thanks. randee
Would the questionnaire created for high school visits to Onate High School be considered a student learning outcomes assessment since we were measuring the increase in knowledge about NMSU/DACC admissions and financial aid processes?
The questionnaire can be considered to be a measurement TOOL to help you assess student learning outcomes. The ciritical component will be whether or not questions exist that either directly or indirectly address the learning outcome(s) you would like to measure. If all the questions relate to how the students liked the program or what they want to see added/deleted, that won't cut it for assessing learning outcomes. However, if you have at least one question such as "After attending this visit, do you know more about the NMSU financial aid process than you did before attending?" that would be a learning outcomes (in-direct) question (and I think you have such questions, correct?). You can also be more specific for a direct measurement of learning, "List the three steps you need to do to apply to NMSU." While this sounds like work, if couched in a positive, fun way, you can get a good measurement of knowledge gained.