Teaching without learning is just talking'

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Teaching without learningis just talking.
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SLO Workshop Program

• A No-nonsense Look at Student Learning Outcomes
• How to Write a (Measurable) Student Learning
  Objective
• Choosing the Best Assessment Tool
• Evaluating and Responding to Outcomes
• Documenting Your Efforts

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Who Should Attend?

• Students
• Faculty
• Staff
• Administrators
• Community Members
• Advisory Committees
• Board Members

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Reasons to Attend

• Uh, whats an SLO?
• Were skeptical about the value of SLOs.
• We had a training on outcomes and disliked it.
• We think outcomes are a fad.
• We want to be as effective.
• We want to work smart.
• We care about our students.

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Our Goals for Todays Workshop

• To inspire your objective, unguarded curiosity
  about how students learn and succeed in relation
  to our individual, team/group, and institutional
  efforts
• To inspire your participation in essential dialog
  about how MJC can better meet the needs of its
  students.

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Workshop 1 Objectives
Given 2 hours of presentation, lecture, and
supporting materials, you will be able to

• Describe the context for the paradigm shift in
  education
• Provide reasons why grades dont directly reveal
  learning
• Explain what happens to students when
  institutions lose accreditation
• Distinguish between a student learning outcome
  and a student learning objective
• Provide examples of factors that could influence
  an outcome
• Explain what the TLC is, and how it is used to
  improve learning
• Explain why a bad outcome can be a very good
  thing

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Shifting the Educational Paradigm

• Producing learning versus
• providing instruction.

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Times are changing

• New insights into learning
• Exploding access to information
• Changing student demographics
• Privatization of education
• Global competition
• Feedback-oriented society
• Generation Y
• Requests for accountability

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Learning vs. Achievement

• Achievement
• Achievement alone is the benchmark of performance
• Achievement was evidenced by the abstraction of
  one or more grades
• Learning
• Learning is evidenced by concrete skills,
  knowledge, behaviors and/or attitudes
• Grades cannot be easily linked to acquisition of
  specific knowledge, skills, behaviors and/or
  attitudes

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Overheard
My student was graduating with her Nursing
degree. I was proud as I watched her walk up to
the podium--knowing what opportunities awaited
her. But when I remembered my own first
experiences as a nurse, I panicked, did I teach
her those skills that matter in a life or death
situation?!
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Why did she question herself?

• The student had good grades
• The student was responsible
• The student passed all exams
• The student participated in class
• The student was not absent
• The student was motivated
• All assignments were complete

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Evidence of Teaching

• Proof that the student mastered examinations,
  essays, quizzes
• Records were multi-faceted
• Grades reflected multiple concepts learned
• Subjective observations of student achievement
• Records only indirectly suggested mastery of
  specific knowledge, skills, behaviors, and
  attitudes

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Any evidence of learning?

• No proof of mastery of specific competencies
• Relied on instructors narrative
• Only indirect evidence of knowledge, behaviors,
  and attitudes (KSBA)

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So what about learning?

• When we only focus on our indirect measures
  (grades) rather than direct measures (isolating
  specific mastery of knowledge, skills, behaviors,
  and attitudes or KSBA), we miss opportunities
  to gain objective and unexpected feedback and
  insights about how learning occurs.

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How can we focus on learning?

• Remind ourselves that student learning and
  success should be the primary focus of the entire
  institution.
• Incorporate and support more direct measures of
  KSBA, before focusing on achievement.
• Implement institutional decision-making processes
  that use information derived from direct measures
  of KSBA.
• Create an institutional culture that dedicates
  resources and designs processes to support the
  ongoing, thoughtful, and systematic evaluation
  and response to student learning.

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What Learning-Centered Means

• the challenge Americas community colleges face
  with the new millennium is a need to transform
  themselves into colleges that place learning
  first in every decision and action.

William J. Flynn, Palomar CollegeThe Search for
the Learning-Centered College
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It wont happen overnight

• Baby-steps
• 10-year process
• First step? Collegial dialog and input about
  essential learning across the institution
• Courses (not sections)
• Programs
• Services
• Institution
• Institutional thinking Its not just for
  administrators anymore.

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Accreditation and Learning-Centered Institutions

• Helping us realize the meaning across the
  institution.

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What is Accreditation?

• A voluntary and cyclical peer-review process in
  which we participate to gain feedback about our
  institutional health and how well our students
  are prepared for short and long term goals as a
  result of walking through our institution.

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Understanding Accreditation

• Six regional accrediting associations nationwide
• Specific regional commissions for different
  segments K-12, Community Colleges, and
  Universities
• Regional standards against which all institutions
  are evaluated and determined to be worthy of
  accreditation
• Each association learns from the other
• MJC is part of WASC, Western Association of
  Schools and Colleges, the Accrediting Commission
  for Community and Junior Colleges

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What does accreditation mean?

• Nationally recognized value of our courses for
  students
• State and federal funding, financial aid for the
  college
• Participation in a collegial peer-review process
• Permission to freely self-govern and self-improve
• Formal endorsement and public trust

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Steps to earn accreditation

• Self-evaluation and written self-study
• Peer institution visiting team formed
• Evaluation of self-study
• Site visit to review self-study and make
  observations
• Adherence to standards determined
• Recommendations or commendations made
• Accreditation status renewed, removed or probated
• Period to respond

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About our accreditation

• In January 2006, MJCs accredited status was
  renewed for 6 years by WASC, with a customary
  mid-term report due in 2008. An additional
  progress report will be due in October 2007 that
  states how well we are on course in responding to
  its recent recommendations.

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Why an additional progress report?

• From our accreditation visit
• The college has not yet developed student
  learning outcomes or plans for assessing them at
  the degree, certificate, program, or course
  level.
• the team recommends that the college develop,
  implement, and assess student learning outcomes
  to ensure student success in courses, programs,
  certificates, degrees, and services and use the
  assessment and analysis for the purpose of
  improvement.

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Why WASC cares about SLOs

• Last region nationwide to incorporate national
  trends toward learning-centered education
• After 20 years of watching peer accrediting
  commissions, it has been determined it is not a
  fad
• When SLOs are used college-wide, they will see we
  are directly evaluating and responding to the
  needs of our students
• SLOs will help institutions more strategically
  design learning activities, environments,
  services and resources to improve learning and
  success

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An MJC WASC Site Visitor said

• We were more lenient with MJC because we knew
  that you had impermanent leadership which made it
  difficult to make changes, in addition to the
  fact that the SLO Committee had a plan. But, how
  stern the process can be can also just depend on
  the makeup of the committee

Student Success Conference San Diego, October,
2006
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Measuring Learning

• What SLOs really mean

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What does SLO stand for?

• Student learning objective
• Student learning outcome
• A concept in California CCCs that is only just
  beginning to be understood
• Concepts that only partially imply what we are
  being asked to do to be learning-centered and to
  remain accredited
• Core tools for gauging the effectiveness of a
  learning-centered institution

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What is a Student Learning Outcome?

• The fixed, observable, and measurable result
  after one or more events of teaching and
  learning, and/or interactions.

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Examples of Outcomes

• 17 out of 26 students in ENGL 101, Section 2218
  succeeded in using the thesis as the controlling
  idea in a 5-page expository essay.

(FICTITIOUS OUTCOME)
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Examples of Outcomes

• 55 of new students who completed the FAFSA
  correctly between January 1 and March 31 of 2006
  were given some form of financial aid.

(FICTITIOUS OUTCOME)
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Examples of Outcomes

• 82 of students who successfully earned the
  Welding certificate in 2004-2005 academic year
  found welding-related employment in Stanislaus
  County within 6 months of certificate completion.

(FICTITIOUS OUTCOME)
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Examples of Outcomes

• 1/2 of the students attending my French 102 class
  today clearly pronounced je ne sais pas during
  a peer-to-peer conversation.

(FICTITIOUS OUTCOME)
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Examples of Outcomes

• 36 of students who successfully completed MATH
  70 in Spring 2005 went on to successfully
  complete MATH 90 in Fall 2005.

(FICTITIOUS OUTCOME)
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Questioning an Outcome
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Got a bad outcome?

• Why did only 36 of students who successfully
  completed MATH 70 in Spring 2005 go on to
  successfully complete MATH 90 in Fall 2005?

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Ask deeper questions

• How many students who completed MATH 70 actually
  persisted by enrolling in MATH 90 the following
  semester?
• How many students dropped before census date and
  why?
• How many students demonstrated mastery of the
  MATH 70 objectives upon course completion?
• What reasons did students provide for dropping
  the course?

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Evaluate answers for insight

• Enrollment to sections of MATH 90 in Fall 2005
  was limited due to a shortage of qualified
  adjunct instructors
• CALWorks was unable to provide textbooks by the
  first week to over 30 CALWorks students during
  Fall 2005, 10 of whom were enrolled in MATH 90
• Instructors are having difficulty covering the
  course content when under the compressed calendar
• 7 students volunteered in an ASMJC survey that
  they have high anxiety while taking math classes

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With evidence, respond

• Aggressively recruit qualified MATH 90
  instructors
• Investigate book supplies for MATH 90
• Scrutinize the impact of compressed calendar and
  syllabi
• Promote STSK-71, Math Anxiety and investigate
  creation of a learning community

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As you know,
Outcomes result from any number of factors
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• Outcomes, good or bad, only provide strong
  evidence as to whether certain factors working
  together produce or increase learning.

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Factors can include

• Curriculum design
• Course activities
• External influences
• Student support services
• Learning resources
• Teaching styles
• Interactions, relationships
• Scheduling
• Budgetary provisions
• Facilities
• Student demographics
• Learning styles

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Every outcome provides feedback about factors

• Curriculum design
• Course activities
• External influences
• Student support services
• Learning resources
• Teaching styles

• Interactions, relationships
• Scheduling
• Budgetary provisions
• Facilities
• Student demographics
• Learning styles

Have some examples?
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Outcomes are very complex

• They are simply results
• Cannot be written
• Should not predicted
• Influenced by multiple factors, internal and/or
  external, which are influenced directly or
  indirectly
• Must be the curiosity of the institution
• Tell us about our institutional effectiveness
• Generate questions and stimulate responses about
  how and how well learning occurs

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An outcome is an intriguing glimpse at our
institutional effectiveness at a given point in
time.
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We are ALL part of each and every outcome!
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5-Minute Break
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Responding to Outcomes
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Inquiring about outcomes

• Scholarly research and practice has shown that -
  when educators engage in the deliberate, ongoing
  and objective evaluation of the results of
  learning activities learning, as well as
  institutional effectiveness and efficiency can be
  improved much more systematically.

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The Teaching and Learning Cycle
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What is the TLC?

• The Teaching and Learning Cycle is an iterative
  process through which educators systematically
  investigate one or more events of student
  learning or activity for the purpose of gaining
  insight about what has contributed to, detracted
  from, or not affected learning and success.

Any person whos role contributes to   student
success, either directly or indirectly
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Informing our activities

• Units/Lessons
• Sections
• Courses
• Programs
• Degrees
• Certificates
• Sequences
• Clusters
• Services/Offices
• Institution

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The TLC and Institutional Effectiveness

• TLC should garner a wealth of information about
  how various programs, services, and functions
  intersect to produce learning
• Will tell us how a student interacts with and
  benefits from our activities, being focused on
  what he or she takes from our activities, not the
  activities for the sake of themselves.

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How Well Use the TLC at MJC
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Strengths of the TLC

• Employs many steps that we already use
• Only valuable when used repeatedly
• Should be used to strategize learning
• Prevents wasted time exploring ineffective means
  of improvement
• Is a systematic, not only intuitive, way to
  improve learning

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Where the Cycle Begins
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What is a Student Learning Objective?

• Objective is an explicit statement that
  clearly identifies the desired observable and
  measurable knowledge, skills, attitudes, and or
  behaviors that must be shown to demonstrate that
  learning has taken place in a specific context.

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Student Learning Objective

• Given X, the student will Y, Z.
• Given a famous American speech predating
  electronic presentation technology (1970), you
  will create a 12-slide multimedia presentation
  that employs any combination of sounds, video,
  animations, color schemes, and/keywords to
  achieve the presentation goal and enhance the
  spoken message without distracting from the
  speaker or repeating the message.

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Writing An Objective Elicits

• A process where when writing - we force
  ourselves to clearly articulate our expectations
  in concrete, limited terms.
• A process which hones and fine tunes our
  expectations out loud to make them most realistic
  for our teaching efforts and the students.
• A conversation where we discuss our measures of
  student learning with other instructors,
  disciplines, administrators, and support staff to
  provoke meaningful dialog and understanding.

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Written Objectives Produce

• A statement that frames core competencies that
  must be learned
• A strategy to which we design learning activities
• A baseline against which we measure and compare
  outcomes
• A concrete starting point to begin dialog

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Benefits to the Student

• A clear level of expectation
• A relationship
• Informs the student about the KSBA that should be
  ideally gained from a learning activity
• Inspires accountability
• Organization of energies toward the goal
• Concise, complete, expectations
• Road map to achieving success

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SLO versus SLO

• Objective is an explicit statement that clearly
  identifies the desired observable and measurable
  knowledge, skills, attitudes, and or behaviors
  that must be shown to demonstrate that learning
  has taken place in a given context.

Outcome is the fixed, measured result of one or
more events of teaching and learning, and/or
service in a given context.
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Objectives (What you want)
Outcomes (What you get)
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Outcomes happen
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Outcomes are not the point.
Its what we do in response to them that matters.
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What you can do now.

• Think about your course in the context of the
  learning experience.
• Talk to your colleagues about learning in their
  courses.
• Talk with yourself about essential learning in
  your courses.
• Think about how what you do in your classroom
  prepares the student in both short and long term
  goals.
• Initiate meetings in your departments, programs
  where all of these can be discussed and how you
  might become more learning-centered in
  disciplines and services.

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For Workshop 2
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Next Workshop

• A No-Nonsense Look at SLOs
• How to Write a Measurable Student Learning
  Objective
• Choosing the Best Assessment Tool
• Evaluating and Responding to Outcomes
• Documenting Your Efforts

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Goal of the Next Workshop

• To provide a forum where you and your colleagues
  can collegially discuss, share ideas, analyze and
  resolve what is the essential learning for a
  course.
• To provide training so that individual
  instructors can create one or two measurable
  learning objectives that are contextualized for
  their sections of that course.

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Preparation for Workshop 2

• Come with colleagues from your discipline.
• Bring with you the course outline of record for
  that course that most or all of you teach.

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At Workshop 2 You Will

• focus on learning at the course-level
• work with faculty in your discipline to discuss
• the learning that you desire in your courses
• how you facilitate and measure that learning in
  your individual sections.
• collegially evaluate the course outline of record
• for appropriateness and currency
• to gauge whether or not it accurately reflects/
  predicts essential learning in your courses
• to identify, to some extent, what is the
  essential learning for a course.

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Thanks to the 2005-2006MJC SLO Committee

• Adrienne Peek, English
• Anne Shanto, Theatre
• Becky Plaza, Outreach
• Charles Mullins, Speech Communication
• Derek Waring, Counseling
• Ed Howard, English
• Gerald Wray, Autobody
• Kathleen Silva, Research and Planning
• Lee Merchant, Psychology

Letitia Senechal, SLO Facilitator Martha Robles,
Student Success Melissa Beach, Instructional
Services Michele Monlux, Science Mike Morales,
Agriculture Noel Langley, Admissions and
Records Penny Belus, Magic Lab Shelley Circle,
English
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