Fullerton College Student Learning Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) are defined in terms of the knowledge, skills, and abilities that a student has attained at the end (or as a result) of his or her engagement in a particular set of higher education experiences. Fullerton College has SLOs for courses (course-level SLOs), programs (PSLOs) and at the institutional level. More information about the College SLOs can be found on the website (http://slo.fullcoll.edu).
The ISLO Redesign Team was a Faculty Senate Task Force created in February 2020 to review and revise Fullerton College’s institutional student learning outcomes (ISLOs). Pathways Workgroup #4, as part of their charge to “ensure learning is happening” had begun an examination of ISLOs, program student learning outcomes (PSLOs), and the processes used on our campus to assess both. This examination prompted a collaboration between Workgroup 4, the Institutional Integrity Committee, and the SLO Committee, yielding a consensus that these outcomes needed to be revised, having previously been less thoughtfully designed than hastily assembled for compliance purposes.
While the Redesign Team was open to anyone who wished to participate, Senate suggested that each of the following committees should be represented: SLO, Program Review, and Institutional Integrity, as well as Pathways Workgroup #4. We had faculty from the Tech & Engineering, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Humanities divisions, and Classified Professionals from the Academic Support Center and Career and Life Planning Center. This group met monthly during Spring and Fall 2020 and engaged in many thoughtful discussions about the philosophy behind each ISLO. As part of our deliberations, we considered the ISLOs from many other California community colleges, but we crafted new language to make these revised ISLOs our own.
The redesign aimed to streamline the outcomes so that we had a smaller number that more broadly addressed ways of thinking and doing high on Bloom’s taxonomy, outcomes we expect of students at the end of courses and programs of study. We strived to create outcomes that were reasonably possible to assess but that also reflected the purpose behind the skills we want students to develop. Finally, it should be emphasized that not all course SLOs will map to every ISLO, but we think each course on campus will connect with at least one. We expect that students will have the opportunity to meet all the ISLOs over the course of their whole experience at Fullerton College.
We are bringing the final draft forward for Faculty Senate approval so departments can begin the urgent tasks of redesigning PSLOs and mapping both PSLOs and course student learning outcomes (CSLOs) to these new ISLOs. We will save faculty time and effort if they can do this required work with the new ISLOs in hand.
Communication
Communicate clearly and appropriately for a variety of purposes and audiences.
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Critical Thinking and Information Competency
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Analyze and synthesize data/information in a variety of forms (numerical, textual, graphic) for the purpose of interpretation, problem-solving, and decision-making.
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Global Systems Awareness and Ethical Citizenship
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Analyze the interconnectedness of racial, cultural, political, social, economic, and environmental issues from multiple perspectives and recognize the individual agency and collective responsibility necessary for positively influencing those systems.
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Aesthetic Appreciation and Production
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Interpret, appreciate, and create artistic forms of knowledge and expression.
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Personal Responsibility and Professional Development
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Articulate personal values and goals as well as explain the skills, mindsets, and behaviors necessary to achieve well-being and professional success.
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Program-Level and Course-Level SLOs
The program-level SLOs can be found in the catalog embedded in the description of each program and Course-Level SLOs are printed in the syllabus provided by the instructor for each course.