How Can We Make Our Student Learning More Visible?

Institutional Learning Outcomes

The Institutional Learning Outcomes are the umbrella under which all degree, program, and course-level outcomes are housed. Now there are 7 proposed Institutional Learning Outcomes: Effective Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Information Literacy, Quantitative Literacy, Community Engagement & Global Responsibility, and Creative & Innovative Thinking. These have been updated to reflect feedback from May 2015 ILO Survey Results, June 2015 "Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking" Workshop and August 2015 ILO Survey Results, Presentations in CPT, and Academic Schools. These ILOs match COC Mission Statement, connect to ACCJC Standard IIA11ⁱ, and have their foundation from the AAC&U's Essential Learning Outcomes.

Effective Communication

Students communicate effectively. This includes developing critical literacies reading, writing, speaking, listening, visual understanding that they can purposefully apply in various contexts; Organizing and presenting ideas and information visually, orally, and in writing according to standard usage; Understanding and using the elements of effective communication in interpersonal, small group, and large audiences, with intercultural and multicultural awareness.

ACCJC Standard IIA11 communication competency Liberal Education & Americas Promise Essential Learning Outcome: Intellectual and Practical Skills  AAC&U Written Communication VALUE RubricDefinition: Written communication is the development of ideas in writing.  Written communication involves learning to work in many genres and styles. It can involve working with many different technologies, and mixing texts, data, and images. Written communication abilities develop through iterative experiences across the curriculum. AAC&U Oral Communication VALUE RubricDefinition: Oral communication is prepared, purposeful presentation designed to increase knowledge, to foster understanding, or to promote change in the listeners attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors. 

Previous ISLOs (which would be phased out) o Language and Rationality

(English Composition). Produce logical, analytical writing that is focused, fully developed and supported, and conforms to the conventions of standard written English

Career Technical Education Achieve recognized skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in chosen career. 

Critical Thinking

Students demonstrate the ability to think critically and analytically. This includes reasoning effectively from available evidence; demonstrating effective problem solving; engaging in critical thinking, expression, and application; Engaging in reflective thinking and expression; Demonstrating higher-order skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation; Demonstrating ethical reasoning by analyzing an issue/problem and arriving at a solution while using a set of ethics or morals as guidelines; Making connections across disciplines; Applying scientific methods to the inquiry process.

ACCJC Standard IIA11 analytic inquiry skills and ethical reasoning and ability to engage in diverse perspectives

Liberal Education & Americas Promise Essential Learning Outcomes: Intellectual and Practical Skills and Personal and Social Responsibility 

1. AAC&U Critical Thinking VALUE RubricDefinition: Critical thinking is a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion. 
2. AAC&U Inquiry and Analysis VALUE RubricDefinition: Inquiry is a systematic process of exploring issues, objects or works through the collection and analysis of evidence that results in informed conclusions or judgments. Analysis is the process of breaking complex topics or issues into parts to gain a better understanding of them. 
3. AAC&U Ethical Reasoning VALUE RubricDefinition: Ethical Reasoning is reasoning about right and wrong human conduct. It requires students to be able to assess their own ethical values and the social context of problems, recognize ethical issues in a variety of settings, think about how different ethical perspectives might be applied to ethical dilemmas and consider the ramifications of alternative actions. Students ethical self-identity evolves as they practice ethical decision-making skills and learn how to describe and analyze positions on ethical issues.

 Previous ISLOs (which would be phased out) 

o Natural Sciences - Evaluate natural phenomena and human activities through the use of scientific inquiry.
o Social Sciences - Demonstrate an understanding of the perspectives, theories, methods, or core concepts of the behavioral and social sciences.
o Humanities and Fine Arts - #1. Analyze and appreciate works of philosophical, historical, literary, aesthetic, or cultural importance. (Lecture-based courses)
o Humanities and Fine Arts - #2. Demonstrate aesthetic understanding or artistic expression through disciplined-defined proficiencies in a chosen area or focus in Arts and Humanities. (Lab/Studio courses)
o Language and Rationality

 #1 (English Composition). Produce logical, analytical writing that is focused, fully developed and supported, and conforms to the conventions of standard written English. o Language and Rationality

 #2 (Communication and Analytical Thinking). Apply systems of reasoning in solving problems or analyzing and evaluating arguments.

o Diversity - Identify how culture and identity impact individual and group experience in society.
o American Institutions - Trace and analyze the historical development of American institutions and ideals and the operation of representative democratic government.
o Career Technical Education Achieve recognized skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in chosen career. 

Collaboration

Students develop the knowledge and skills to work with others in a professional and constructive manner. This includes engaging with a diverse set of others to produce professional work; Interacting competently across cultures; understanding and appreciating human differences; Recognizing and resolving conflicts; Understanding and acting on standards of professionalism, ethics, and civility, including the COC Student Code of Conduct.

ACCJC Standard IIA11 ability to engage in diverse perspectives

Liberal Education & Americas Promise Essential Learning Outcomes: Intellectual and Practical Skills and Personal and Social Responsibility
 
A. AAC&U Teamwork VALUE Rubric Definition: Teamwork is behaviors under the control of individual team members (effort they put into team tasks, their manner of interacting with others on team, and the quantity and quality of contributions they make to team discussions). 
B. AAC&U Global Learning VALUE Rubric Definition: Global learning is a critical analysis of and an engagement with complex, interdependent global systems and legacies (such as natural, physical, social, cultural, economic, and political) and their implications for peoples lives and the earths sustainability. Through global learning, students should  1) become informed, open-minded, and responsible people who are attentive to diversity across the spectrum of differences, 2) seek to understand how their actions affect both local and global communities, and  3) address the worlds most pressing and enduring issues collaboratively and equitably. 

AAC&U Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE RubricDefinition: Intercultural Knowledge and Competence is "a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.

Previous ISLOs (which would be phased out)
 o Career Technical Education Achieve recognized skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in chosen career.
o Diversity - Identify how culture and identity impact individual and group experience in society.

Information Literacy

Students develop information literacy. Gathering and analyzing information using technology, library resources, and other modalities; Understanding and acting upon ethical and security principles with respect to computer technology and to information acquisition and distribution; distinguishing between credible and non-credible sources of information, and using the former in their work in an appropriately documented fashion.

ACCJC Standard IIA11 information competency. Liberal Education & Americas Promise Essential Learning Outcome: Intellectual and Practical Skills

AAC&U Information Literacy VALUE Rubric Definition: The ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand.

Previous ISLO (which would be phased out) 

o Language and Rationality  (English Composition). Produce logical, analytical writing that is focused, fully developed and supported, and conforms to the conventions of standard written English.

Quantitative Literacy

Students develop quantitative literacies necessary for their chosen field of study. This includes understanding mathematical theory, concepts and methods of inquiry to apply appropriate mathematical techniques to both academic and practical problems; analyzing and evaluating mathematical information to interpret, apply and generate data in the form of graphs, tables, and schematics in a variety of disciplines.

ACCJC Standard IIA11 quantitative competency 

Liberal Education & Americas Promise Essential Learning Outcome: Intellectual and Practical Skills

AAC&U Quantitative Literacy VALUE Rubric Definition: Quantitative literacy (QL) also known as Numeracy or Quantitative Reasoning (QR) is a habit of mind, competency, and comfort in working with numerical data. Individuals with strong QL skills possess the ability to reason and solve quantitative problems from a wide variety of authentic contexts and everyday life situations. They understand and can create sophisticated arguments supported by quantitative evidence and they can clearly communicate those arguments in a variety of formats (using words, tables, graphs, mathematical equations, etc., as appropriate). 

Previous ISLOs (which would be phased out) 

o Language and Rationality –#2 (Communication and Analytical Thinking). Apply systems of reasoning in solving problems or analyzing and evaluating arguments. o Natural Sciences - Evaluate natural phenomena and human activities through the use of scientific inquiry. 

 Community Engagement & Global Responsibility

Students develop the knowledge and skills to actively engage in the local, national and global community. This includes understanding the environmental, political, historical, social, and economic underpinnings of the communities to which they belong and extending this awareness to global challenges; Integrating classroom and community-based experiential learning; In the context of complex social and environmental issues, identify and articulates the strengths, challenges and opportunities of communities; Evaluating personal strengths, challenges and responsibility for effecting positive social change and sustainable living patterns in communities; Drawing upon classroom and community-based learning to develop professional skills and socially responsible civic behaviors; Utilizing the aforementioned skills, engage in behaviors that effect positive social change designed to meet the community's needs.

Liberal Education & Americas Promise Essential Learning Outcome: Personal and Social Responsibility and Integrative and Applied Learning

 AAC&U Civic Engagement VALUE Rubric Definition: Civic engagement is working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. This means promoting quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes. 

Global Learning

AAC&U Global Learning VALUE Rubric Definition: Global learning is a critical analysis of and an engagement with complex, interdependent global systems and legacies (such as natural, physical, social, cultural, economic, and political) and their implications for peoples lives and the earths sustainability.

Through global learning, students should 1) become informed, open-minded, and responsible people who are attentive to diversity across the spectrum of differences, 2) seek to understand how their actions affect both local and global communities, and 3) address the worlds most pressing and enduring issues collaboratively and equitably.

AAC&U Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE Rubric Definition: Intercultural Knowledge and Competence is "a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.

AAC&U Integrative Learning VALUE Rubric Definition: Integrative learning is an understanding and a disposition that a student builds across the curriculum and co-curriculum, from making simple connections among ideas and experiences to synthesizing and transferring learning to new, complex situations within and beyond the campus. 

Previous ISLOs (which would be phased out) 

o American Institutions - Trace and analyze the historical development of American institutions and ideals and the operation of representative democratic government.

o Social Sciences - Demonstrate an understanding of the perspectives, theories, methods, or core concepts of the behavioral and social sciences.

 o Humanities and Fine Arts - #1. Analyze and appreciate works of philosophical, historical, literary, aesthetic, or cultural importance. (Lecture-based courses)

o Diversity - Identify how culture and identity impact individual and group experience in society. 

Creative & Innovative Thinking

Students think creatively and innovatively. This includes the ability to approach problems and situations in a new and effective ways using knowledge developed through shared ideas, and with the aid of the tools and technology available at hand. This also includes being creative, imaginative, and innovative to synthesize existing ideas, images or expertise so they are expressed in original, imaginative ways in order to challenge and extend current understanding or expression.

Liberal Education & Americas Promise Essential Learning Outcome: Intellectual and Practical Skills

AAC&U Creative Thinking VALUE Rubric Definition: Creative thinking is both the capacity to combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways and the experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative way characterized by a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.

 

[i]Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) Accreditation Standards, Adopted Jun 2014, Standard II.A.11. The institution includes in all of its programs, student learning outcomes, appropriate to the program level, in communication competency, information competency, quantitative competency, analytic inquiry skills, ethical reasoning, the ability to engage in diverse perspectives, and other program-specific learning outcomes.

 

updated 3.26.16