South Mountain Community College (SMCC) has developed a comprehensive assessment process designed to enhance student learning and institutional effectiveness. This process encompasses course, program, and institutional assessments, which are continuously refined to meet the evolving needs of the college's diverse student body and align with accreditation requirements. This summary outlines the key components and steps involved in SMCC's assessment process, providing specific evidence of its implementation.
Institutional assessment at SMCC focuses on evaluating the overall effectiveness of the college in fulfilling its mission. The assessment of Institutional Student Learning Outcomes (iSLOs) plays a crucial role in this process. iSLOs represent the knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes that all graduates are expected to develop, regardless of their program of study. These outcomes are designed to ensure that students possess general competencies that prepare them for success in various contexts. SMCC recently updated its institutional learning outcomes in response to District changes to its First Year Experience outcomes and new General Education outcomes from the Curriculum Committee. At this point, we have a process, but have not progressed past the first step of creating the iSLOs and their rubrics.
Program assessment at SMCC involves evaluating the effectiveness of specific academic programs in achieving their educational objectives. Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) define what students should know, think, or do across all courses within a program. PLOs are broad enough to encompass the learning outcomes of individual courses within the program. As part of the District’s Guided Pathways initiative designed to streamline students’ progress toward a credential. Over the course of several years, district mapping teams created pathways for each program along with program learning outcomes. The District Curriculum Committee is in the process of building assessment matrices for these programs, but this work is not yet complete. At SMCC, we are investigating the use of the SPOL (Strategic Planning Online) Assessment module to build a repository for program assessment, however this initiative is in its early stages.
Course assessment focuses on evaluating student learning within individual courses. Course Student Learning Outcomes (cSLOs) specify what students are expected to achieve by the end of a course. These outcomes are designed to be measurable and align with both PLOs and iSLOs, as well as course competencies provided by the District Center for Curriculum and Transfer Articulation.
The Assessment Committee plays a central role in coordinating assessment efforts at SMCC. This team consists of faculty members who meet monthly and are committed to ongoing academic assessment. They support their colleagues in developing student learning outcomes, designing assessments, assisting with program review and using assessment data to improve pedagogy and curriculum. Ideally our current process and future improvements to it will provide a clear framework for achieving academic excellence and accountability.