Other uses of the word “outcome.” People refer to an outcome of a program or college when they are talking about a rate or number that indicates success. An outcome for a college could be the percentage of students who graduated with a degree, or who transferred to a four-year institution. A nursing program might track its students’ pass rate for a nursing licensure exam as an outcome of its program.

PBLOs. Chemeketa no longer uses the term performance based learning outcome (PBLO). Student learning outcome (SLO) is the preferred term used by our accreditors and partner institutions as well.

Other terms. A few fields with independent accreditation standards use such terms as “competencies” or “learning goals” instead of “outcomes” to specify their anticipated learning.  “Learning objective” is often used to describe intended learning of an individual lesson. 

The word “assessment” has many meanings and usages. Conversations about it can become confusing for this reason. It helps to specify the context and type of assessment you are discussing to ensure everyone is talking about the same thing.

For example, all faculty assess how well their students understand what they’re teaching. They collect this information in many ways, from observing groups to reading journal entries to giving tests. 

LOAC's role is to guide Chemeketa’s student learning outcomes assessment system for documenting, gauging, and improving student learning across the college's academic offerings.

Click the image to access the course catalog on Chemeketa's website.