Milestones

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1997-98

-The Division Chair Council begins a year-long study on learning outcomes assessment.

1998-1999

-The Division Chair Council works with the Faculty Senate to design a faculty project for experimenting with outcomes assessment.

-Cabrillo applies for and receives a year-long grant from the Lucile and David Packard Foundation to enable faculty to explore outcomes assessment. Grant activities include:

A two-week Summer Institute for 15 faculty to learn about outcomes assessment and design a research project focused on applying assessment methods to one class.

Fall implementation of the research project.

Spring analysis of results.

Production of a Learner Outcomes Handbook that details the results.

-Marcy Alancraig, English instructor, is selected as faculty leader for the Packard Project.

-Inaugural Learner Outcomes Summer Institute is held.

1999-2002

-3 more summer Institutes are held, instructing a total of 57 faculty in SLO assessment. Faculty produce the Handbook and a Toolkit about the results of their assessments. See the Learner Outcomes Institute Fact Sheet for more details.

-Cabrillo’s Institute experiences are presented at several statewide conferences including The Learning Paradigm conference and the California Assessment Institute.

-Cabrillo holds several flex workshops about the Institutes and learning outcomes.

2001-2002

-The Faculty Senate convenes a new subcommittee, Learner Outcomes and Accreditation, whose task is to monitor the development of the new accreditation standards and choose an assessment method for the college.

-Marcy Alancraig, English, is appointed to the new position of SLO Assessment Coordinator at 25% reassign time beginning in Fall 2001. In addition to planning the summer Institute, her responsibilities include gathering information on assessment models, trying to interpret the new accreditation standards and serving on the Senate subcommittee on SLOs. She presents a report on her activities to Vice President Claire Biancalana in Spring 2002.

-Fall 2001, Marcy Alancraig teaches a class, English 180S, the Literature of Educational Theory and Pedagogical Paradigms, to interested Cabrillo faculty on the learning outcomes approach. It is the Learners Outcomes Institute in a classroom-based format. Diane Putnam, English Division Chair, produces a research project on approaches used at colleges across the nation that is presented to the Learner Outcomes and Accreditation subcommittee and forms the initial basis for their work and investigations.

2002-2003

-The Faculty Senate defines the college core competencies

-The Learner Outcomes and Accreditation subcommittee continues to debate assessment methods and explore options for Cabrillo; it urges the adoption of the Transfer Breakfast and Cabrillo Festival as assessment activities.

-Summer Institute alumni complete a follow-up survey that shows continued use of outcomes assessment; see the Learner Outcomes Institute Fact Sheet for detailed results.

-Marcy Alancraig presents the results of the follow-up survey to the Governing Board in May 2003.

-Cabrillo’s approach to assessment is presented at the California Assessment Institute and at workshops sponsored by the Research and Planning Group at Santa Rosa, San Francisco City and West Valley community colleges.

-Marcy Alancraig prepares a report on her activities as Assessment Coordinator to Vice President of Instruction Claire Biancalana in August 2003.

2003-2004

-The Faculty Senate designs an assessment process for the college core competencies and asks those departments going through Instructional Planning to pilot it. The Council for Instructional Planning (CIP) approves both the process and the forms added to Instructional Plans to document the assessment results.

-The SLO Assessment Coordinator position is suspended in Fall 2003 due to budget constraints and re-instated in Spring 2004 at 50% reassign time. Responsibilities are expanded to include on-going work with departments in the pilot, refining the instructional assessment plan, working with non-instructional components to develop assessment plans and archiving Cabrillo SLO work.

-The Assessment Coordinator and Faculty Senate President train faculty undergoing the pilot in the new assessment method.

-The SLO Assessment Coordinator writes three workbooks (Classroom/Course Level Workbook, Occupational Program Workbook, Instructional Planning Workbook) that also train faculty in the pilot assessment method and are used during the flex workshops. Later, they are posted on the Learning Outcomes website.

-The Curriculum Committee adopts changes in Course Outline forms to include SLOs; the Curriculum Handbook is amended and Fiesta is altered to reflect those changes.

-The Assessment Coordinator and Faculty Senate President present the Instructional assessment plan to each division to gather feedback on it.

-The Accreditation Planning Committee is formed to design a college-wide assessment plan, develop an institutional timeline for accreditation, and develop a plan to implement dialogue as part of campus processes.

-The Learning Outcomes website is designed and produced by Jing Luan, director of Planning and Research.

2004-2005

-Fall Flex week features several workshops on SLOs.

-The college-assessment plan and dialogue process, developed by the Accreditation Planning Committee, is presented during Spring Flex week in a workshop called “Chewing On Learning Outcomes.” A booklet that describes the assessment process for each sector of the campus is prepared for attendees and attendees are surveyed about their concerns and understanding of Cabrillo’s SLO plans. This workshop also includes the premier of the Core 4 song, written and performed by Faculty Senate President Rory O'Brien.

-Most of Spring Flex is devoted to SLOs; workshops include training departments undergoing Instructional Planning in the Instructional assessment process.

-The departments that participated in the pilot of the Instructional assessment plan present their results as part of their Instructional Plans to CIP.

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator and Faculty Senate President meet with campus bodies about the college assessment plan including the faculty union, CCFT, the Student Senate, and the Master Planning Committee.

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator addresses faculty concerns about assessment in a regular section of Instruction Notes and in an article in the CCFT newsletter.

-The Accreditation Planning Committee revises the assessment plan, based on feedback received from the college; they define the responsibilities of the SLO Assessment Review Committee and how assessment activities link to the college Master Plan.

-The Accreditation Planning Committee, Faculty Senate and CCFT work to design how SLOs and faculty evaluation are linked. CCFT and the college administration negotiate contract language on the issue.

-The Accreditation Planning Committee finalizes the accreditation time-line and completes it work.

-The Assessment Coordinator presents a proposal to the Student Senate and asks for their sponsorship of the Transfer Breakfast. The first breakfast is held; attendees are celebrated and asked for their assessment of the transfer programs and services at Cabrillo.

-The SLO Subcommittee of the college Curriculum Committee convenes for the first time to evaluate new curriculum containing SLOs and the core competencies. Their report is presented to the full Curriculum committee during Spring 2005.

-Michael Mangin, History, is chosen for as the Faculty Chair for the Accreditation Self-Study; the Faculty Senate begins the process to find volunteers to serve as standard and section co-chairs.

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator position is upped to 75% reassign time.

-Cabrillo’s approach to SLO assessment is presented as an exemplary model at the statewide “Assessment that Matters” conference at UC Berkeley.

-Marcy Alancraig prepares her annual SLO Assessment Coordinator’s report for new Vice President of Instruction Renee Kilmer in August 2005.

2005-2006

-Much of Fall Flex is devoted to SLOs. “Digesting Learning Outcomes,’ a follow-up workshop to Spring’s “Chewing on Learning Outcomes” is presented to describe the concerns last spring’s attendees had about the college SLO assessment plan and what has been done to alleviate them. Attendees are again surveyed about their understanding and concerns about Cabrillo’s assessment plans.

-The SLO Subcommittee of the college Curriculum Committee meets each semester to evaluate new curriculum containing SLOs and the core competencies. The present the results of their work to the full Curriculum committee in a Fall 2005 report and Spring 2006 report.

-Accreditation is underway! A “Theme Team,” chaired by the Outcomes Assessment Coordinator is created to help standard committees deal with each theme. In addition, the SLO website is updated and completed to help standard committees provide evidence for Cabrillo’s SLO processes and procedures.

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator works intensively with Student Services to help them create assessment plans for each department.

-The Student Senate expands the Transfer Breakfast to a Transfer Lunch and votes to sponsor it along with the Transfer Center and the Faculty Senate. It doubles in enrolllment and survey data is gathered.

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator's position is established as part of the CCFT contract at 50% reassigned time through Spring 2010.

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator presents her report of her year's activities in August 2006.

2006-2007

-The college Core Competencies are the main theme of the Fall Flex week and continue to be a feature of Spring flex week as well. Highlights include presentations by the SLO Coordinator and Faculty Senate president on the Revolving Wheel of Assessment in Transfer and Basic Skills programs and the Revolving Wheel for Occupational Programs.

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator presents an "State of the SLO Union" report to the Governing Board in September.

-Work on the accreditation self-study continues. The Theme Team read drafts of each standard, providing feedback to committees on theme information and evidence. The SLO Coordinator works intensively to help draft the opening chapter on the history of SLOs at Cabrillo and becomes part of the "Accredibles," the small group working on finalizing publication.

-Cabriillo assessment methods are presented at two conferences "Strengthening Student Success" in October 2006 and the statewide Academic Senate's inaugural "Accreditation Institute" in Janary 2007.

-The SLO Subcommittee of the college Curriculum Committee meets to evaluate new curriculum containing SLOs and the core competencies in Fall 2006 and Spring 2007. Their report will be presented to the full Curriculum in early fall 2007.

-The Faculty Senate, with input from faculty at large and the Student Senate, revises the college core competencies.

-The SLO Asssessment Review Committee meets for the first time at the end of the school year.

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator works with Dale Attias, Instructional Procedure Analyst, to prepare for Cabrillo's transition to CurricUNET by making sure the design of the SLO component is accurate and workable.

-The Transfer Lunch is held once again to honor transfer students; the event is sponsored by the Student and Faculty Senates and the Transfer Center. Data on transfer issues is collected and a report issued by the Planning and Resource Office.

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator presents her yearly report to Vice President Kilmer in August 2007.

2007-2008

-The SLO Subcommittee of the College Curriculum Committee presents its report to the full committee, noting the need for more training in how to write SLOs.

-The Outcomes Assessment Review committee (ARC) issues its first report on college-wide assessment efforts. The report recommends revising the SLO reporting form for Instruction, which is done by the Outcomes Assessment Coordinator and approved by the Council for Instructional Planning. With the advent of the ARC reports, the Vice President of Instruction decides that an annual formal report from the Outcomes Assessmenet Coordinator is no longer necessary.

-Cabrillo’s accreditation is affirmed by the ACCJC. The report lauds the college’s work with SLOs “Thus, the visiting team determined that the student learning outcomes and assessment process for instructional programs was well on the way to proficiency.”

-Cabrillo receives one recommendation from the ACCJC to strengthen its SLO work: “The team recommends that Student Services develop and implement student learning outcomes and measurements for all its departments, collect and analyze the data, and link the results to planning and program improvement. “

-Winifred Baer becomes the Outcomes Assessment Coordinator, replacing Marcy Alancraig who is on leave to work with the statewide Basic Skills Initiative for a year and then will undertake a year’s sabbatical.

-Student Services holds a day of training in SLO writing, to begin its efforts to fulfill the accreditation recommendations. All departments write four SLOs, tied to each of the college’s core competencies. Plans are made to assess them.

2008-2009

-Student Services departments begin to assess their SLOs. Some SLOs are found to be problematic because they do not help the departments to measure what students are learning. Revisions are discussed.

-The Outcomes Assessment Committee (ARC) issues its second annual report. It recommends creating an intensive SLO Assessment workshop for departments two years away from Instructional Planning. The first workshop is offered in Fall Flex week of 2009.

-The phase-in process for SLO assessment is complete. Departments are now expected to complete the full Revolving Wheel of Assessment, assessing all course SLOs, each of the Core 4 (if a transfer or basic skills department), and the SLOs for each certificate and degree offered (if a CTE department) during their six-year program planning cycle.

-Instruction shifts to institutionalizing its SLO processes, looking at ways to clarify what is expected, making stronger links between SLO assessment results and budgetary requests in program planning, and helping individual program chairs with organizing the work. The Council on Instructional Planning revises its instructions and format to include a section on SLOs in program plans.

-The Transfer Lunch is suspended due to budget constraints.

2009-2010

-SLO Departmental Assessment Analysis forms in Instruction are revised to try to better capture how many adjunct faculty are participating in SLO assessment.

-The Outcomes Assessment Committee (ARC) issues its third annual report. An on-going recommendation from the previous two reports is to find ways to increase adjunct participation in SLO assessment.

-Marcy Alancraig returns to the Outcomes Assessment Coordinator position in Spring 2010 after a sabbatical, following two years of excellent work by Assessment Coordinator Winifred Baer.

-Some Student Services departments finalize revisions to SLOs to better capture what students learn in the process of working with that department.

-The SLO Subcommittee of the Curriculum Committee dissolves due to the new curriculum approval processes required by CurricUNET. The SLO Coordinator will now approve the SLOs written as part of the curriculum process.

-Cabrillo applies for and receives a Bridging Research, Information and Culture (BRIC) technical assistance grant from the Research and Planning Group of California. This grant provides Cabrillo with 150 hours of technical support and expertise from statewide experts in research, assessment, and planning. Part of the grant is used to provide assistance in SLO assessment to all departments in Student Services.

2010-2011

-The BRIC technical assistance team meets with Student Services departments to discuss new approaches to SLO assessment. Departments revise their SLOs to more accurately reflect what students learn after interacting with the department.

-Instructional departments are asked attach the SLO Departmental Assessment Analysis forms completed in that year with their annual report in December.

-The Outcomes Assessment Committee (ARC) issues its fourth annual report. It notes that adjunct faculty participated more in the discussion of SLO assessment results, but continue to lag in doing the actual assessment. It will undertake a survey of adjunct faculty to discover their experience with SLOs and the barriers to their participation. It recommends using the name “program planning” to describe departmental review for all components in the college. In keeping with the college's committment to sustainability and because so many departments are now actively assessing SLOs, the report recommends that ARC explore electronic tools for SLO assessment reporting.

-The BRIC team provides an all day technical assistance workshop for departments in Student Services, meeting with each department to review the revised SLOs and their assessment plans.

-The BRIC team meets with the Outcomes Assessment Review Committee to discuss electronic tools to track SLO assessment and ways to improve Cabrillo’s SLO reporting. Due to the budget crisis, purchasing an electronic tool is not deemed financially feasible at this time.

-The President’s Cabinet adopts the use of the template created by the Vice President of Instruction’s office for all Administrative program plans.

-The survey of adjuncts that ARC has created is expanded to include the experiences of the entire college. Administering the survey is postponed until late Fall 2011 in order to avoid completing with accreditation surveys.

2011-2012

-The college adopts an academic honor code, a direct result of the assessment of the Personal Responsibility and Professional Development core competency and the dialogue that followed it. A joint committee of Student Services administrators and staff and members of the Faculty Senate revised the description of plagiarism in the Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook and created the honor code.

-Faculty Senate adds pre and post testing as an assessment option for transfer and basic skills departments in Instruction. It also undertakes a pilot project to change how Instructional Assessment results are reported.

-The Outcomes Assessment Review Committee administers its SLO survey. The survey confirms several ARC observations from annual reports, including the uneven participation of adjunct faculty in SLO assessment and the phase of development of Student Services and Administrative SLO assessment processes.

-The Program Reduction/Elimination task force creates a matrix used to rank academic programs in the event that the college needs to considering reducing or eliminating them due to the budget crisis. SLOs are one of the criteria used for the ranking.

-The Outcomes Assessment Committee (ARC) issues its fifth annual report. The report notes that there has been a shift in training Instructional departments in SLO assessment; this work is now being done primarily by program chairs who need more assistance in training techniques as well as better tools to help organize their SLO work. It also recommends that Administration shift from writing and assessing SLOs to using Administrative Unit Outcomes instead. It also recommends the creation of flex workshops to share insights from the assessment of the Core 4 across the entire campus.

-Flex workshops especially for program chairs and ones focused on dialoguing about the results of Core 4 assessment are offered in Spring 2012 and Fall 2012.

-Administration adopts the use of Administrative Unit Outcomes rather than SLOs. The Library adopts this as well for its services, but will continue to assess SLOs in its courses.

2012-13

-The Outcomes Assessment Committee (ARC) presents the results of the SLO survey to the Faculty Senate.

-After a five-year effort to instutionalize SLO assessment processes, Instruction shifts its focus to maintaining quality assurance.

-As a result of this shift, the Planning and Research office is asked to create an SLO Tracking Tool to take an inventory of which classes have undergone SLO assessment for the first time. Though 100% participation is required, the college is surprised and alarmed to learn that, according to the tool, SLOs in only 61% of active courses and 74% of certificates have been assessed.

-The Faculty Senate, the Council on Instructional Planning and the Outcomes Assessment Review Committee discuss how to improve SLO processes and outcomes. ARC outlines four major challenges and proposes solutions to meet them. The challenges are:

1) Adjunct participation in SLO assessment

2) Timely completion of SLO assessment

3) Reporting of assessment results

4) Providing an Electronic Tool for SLO assessment reporting

-The college submits its Status Report on Student Learning Outcomes Implementation to the ACCJC.

-Almost all departments in Student Services complete program plans and assess their SLOs. The plans and assessment results are posted on the Student Services website.

-Student Services standardizes its program planning template to better integrate SLO results with program planning goals and budgetary recommendations. The template is provided in a downloadable form from the Student Services website.

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator works with departments in Administration to write AUOs and to make plans to assess them. Almost all departments write AUOs.

-The Outcomes Assessment Committee (ARC) convenes a Tech subcommittee to look at options for the electronic reporting of SLO assessment results.

-The President’s Cabinet asked the Outcomes Assessment Review Committee (ARC) to include looking at campus institutional effectiveness issues as part of its charge. As part of this new work, it creates a template for Administrative program planning.

-The Outcomes Assessment Committee (ARC) issues its sixth annual report. Its recommendations include finding ways to share assessment results between Student Services and Instruction, devoting a portion of the SLO website to materials needed by program chairs, finding an electronic tool for SLO assessment reporting for Instruction, and facilitating additional dialog to ensure full compliance with college SLO standards.

-The SLO website is revised. It now has new workbooks (in the left hand column of this page) for writing and assessing Instructional and Student Services SLOs, and a primer on Administrative Unit Outcomes. The website also includes a special section and handbook for Program Chairs (see tabs at the top of this page).

-The Outcomes Assessment Coordinator prepares an informational item for the Governing Board that updates outcomes assessment efforts across the campus.

-A meeting of Instructional Council is devoted to training Deans in how to assist their faculty in SLO assessment.

-The college moves to post program plans and SLO and AUO Assessment results on its public websites, rather than keeping them on the intranet. The reports on published on the websites of the Vice Presidents of Administrative Services, Instruction and Student Services.

-The college commits to purchasing CurriUNET’s SLO module.

-The Outcomes Assessment Committee (ARC) undertakes another SLO survey in late spring 2013 to measure the impact of changes across the campus with outcomes assessment.

2013-14

-Over the summer, the Curriculum Specialist and the SLO Coordinator work with CurricUNET to design the SLO module.

-The SLO module is piloted by the following departments: Counseling, Dean of Counseling and Education Suport Services Office, Economics, English, the Instruction Office and Medical Assisting.

-The Outcomes Assessment Review Committee creates an SLO Assessment Benchmarks and Dashboard that is posted on the first page of the SLO website and the Accreditation website.

-The Outcomes Assessment Review Committee prepares a summary of the spring 2013 SLO Survey and presents it to the Faculty Senate. The complete survey, a comparison of the 2011 and 2013 surveys and the survey summary are posted on the first page of the SLO web site.