Boozhoo!
Welcome, new adjunct instructors, and welcome back, those of you who are continuing adjunct instructors! As the Assessment Coordinator, I have prepared this web site to assist you in the development of your syllabi and incorporation of essential components regarding assessment of student learning. As many of you know, we had our Higher Learning Commission (HLC) accreditation site visit this past May, and the visiting team wrote up its findings in the Team Report. To assist you in understanding the context of our tasks ahead of us, I have attached a relevant page from the HLC Team Draft Report
LCOOCC’s assessment of student learning is grounded in the course objectives that often include our general education objectives and eventually, our program level objectives/ outcomes. What this means is that your course syllabi need to reflect student learning objectives and the assessment activities you will use to determine if students have met those learning objectives. Assessment in higher education is not standardized exams as in K12. As instructors at the collegiate level, you have greater latitude in designing assessment activities, such as library papers, projects, final exams, or oral presentations.
As we move towards implementing and improving our program to assess student academic achievement, please keep HLC in mind. In short, I’ve had some good words about the some of the past efforts regarding assessment and the evidence that assessment is part of the teaching and learning at LCOOCC. Likewise, there are areas needing improvement, and our efforts to address these concerns need to begin immediately. This packet of information is intended to assist you. Please review all pages included here.
HLC Team Report finding on Assessment of Student Learning (PDF)
Instructions for General Education Objectives
General Education Objectives and Page from New Catalog
Writing Course Objectives and Program Objectives
As you update and revise your syllabi for the upcoming fall semester, please keep in mind that your course syllabus is one of the most important documents that sets out the process of course-embedded assessment of student learning. It’s like the JCPenny jingle, “It’s all inside.” By current practices in higher education, your course syllabus must go beyond a schedule of chapters and topics and a grading scale. In other words, what used to be sufficient in days gone by is no longer considered “good practice.” Some HLC Consultant-Evaluators have said that the learning objectives are perhaps the most important component of a syllabus. More than course titles and descriptions, the articulation of what you as an instructor want students to know and be able to do is the focus of why we teach…and this is student learning.
Please take another look at
your course objectives. I have seen many syllabi that describe instructional
intent, but the key focus of goals and objectives in course syllabi has changed.
The focus is on learning, not teaching. This is why we are here; it’s about
student learning: what students should know and be able to do as a consequence
of taking your course and completing the activities you assign.
This set of web pages will guide
and assist you in the review of your fall syllabi and revision of your course
objectives. Remember, there can be three sometimes overlapping sets of course
objectives, each needing assessment activities also articulated.
(1) The learning outcomes of your course alone,
(2) The General Education Learning Objectives, and
(3) Program outcomes.
You will have at least Number 1 in all cases. If your course meets any of the General Education Requirements, you will need to include the relevant Learning Objectives. These are listed on page 16 of the new Catalog. The new Catalog has these new requirements on page 15. And lastly, if your course is required in a degree program, you should be thinking about “why” your course is required in terms of student outcomes.