Student Learning Outcomes

Institutional Learning Outcomes

Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) are statements of the general knowledge and skills that all graduates who complete an associate degree or transfer program at Cosumnes River College should be able to demonstrate at the time of graduation, regardless of academic program of study. Students completing a certificate or other educational goal will complete an applicable set of these Institutional Student Learning Outcomes.

Our current ILOs were approved by the Academic Senate and Participatory Governance Council in spring 2019.

General Education Student Learning Outcomes

General Education Student Learning Outcomes (GESLOs) enumerate the skills and abilities that students will acquire upon completion of the general education curriculum at Cosumnes River College.

Our current GESLOs were approved by the Academic Senate and presented to Participatory Governance as informational in spring 2021.

Program Student Learning Outcomes

Program Student Learning Outcomes (PSLOs) are broad statements of the most important skills and abilities that students obtain when completing a degree or certificate program. PSLOs are listed for each degree or certificate in the college catalog. PSLOs are established during the development or revision of the program through the curriculum process.

• Student Learning Outcomes – Procedures and Practices

Course Student Learning Outcomes

Course Student Learning Outcomes (CSLOs) describe the skills and knowledge that students obtain when completing a course. CSLOs are listed in the course outline in Socrates and must be listed on the course syllabus. CSLOs are established during the development or revision of the course through the curriculum process.

• Student Learning Outcomes – Procedures and Practices

Service Area Outcomes

Service Area Outcomes (SAOs) describe the objectives of the service area in support of student achievement and accomplishment of student goals. Service Area Outcomes articulate the ways in which the unit supports the college’s mission, vision, and values. SAOs are established by Student Services and Administrative Units in the College Integrated Planning Systems (CIPS).

Relationship Among Outcomes

Throughout their educational experience students acquire relevant outcomes from courses, programs, extracurrricular and co-curricular activities and interaction with student services. Course learning outcomes are mapped to relevant degrees or certificates, which require the course. Program outcomes reflect the cumulative accomplishment of learning achieved through relevant coursework. General education student learning outcomes reflect the cumulative knowledge and skills acquired through completion of GE coursework. Institutional learning outcomes reflect the cumulative skills, abilities, and habits of mind acquired through their educational experience at CRC.

Outcomes Assessment is the process by which CRC gathers information about students’ learning and utilizes that information to improve teaching, learning, and service delivery at the college. Outcomes Assessment determines the extent to which the outcomes for a course, program, and General Education (GE) area and/or the college are being met, and helps inform long-term planning for how CRC can better support students in meeting these outcomes. (Modified from NILOA Assessment Glossary.)

ILOs are assessed annually using the Graduate Exit Survey. ILO Assessments inform ongoing improvements to, all organizational units, their responsibilities, and their functions.

• Spring 2014 GE Discipline Specific Skills SLO Assessment
• Spring 2013 College-wide/GE Assessments- Self-reliant learning; ethics and pluralism; information acquisition and analysis; select discipline-specific skills
• Spring 2012 GE Assessment - Ethnic/Multicultural Outcome
• Summary of Follow-up Studies (Participation and Cultural Competence)
• Data from Cultural Competence Follow-up Study (Fall 2011)
• Student Participation Follow-up Report (Fall 2010)

GELOs are assessed through the courses approved through the particular GE area. GELO assessment informs revisions to improve educational opportunities in order to afford students a learning experience with goals and rigor parallel to those provided by any state college or university.

Course and Program SLOs are assessed within a six-year cycle in our College Integrated Planning System (CIPS). Regular assessment of course SLO attainment guides decisions about how the course is taught, and allows immediate intervention when students fall behind. On-going program SLO assessment informs revisions to improve programmatic efficacy.

• College Integrated Planning System (CIPS)

Learning outcomes describe the abilities, skills, and knowledge that a student will acquire through courses, a degree or certificate program, and throughout their college experience. The college assesses its outcomes to ensure that students are acquiring the intended skills and knowledge and uses the results of assessment to improve programs and services.

We assess our learning outcomes in order to ensure that our programs and services are meeting the learning goals we advertise to our students. Outcomes assessment is not just a compliance issue; many of our departments report meaningful discussions about instructional practices, curricular scaffolding, and more, as a result of outcomes assessment. While most of us likely reflect on assessment on a daily basis (at the end of a lecture, for example), the act of reporting these reflections serves as a systematic review of our outcomes, as well as documentation to support curricular changes or resource requests.

Per our accreditors, advisories, prerequisites, and some CTE courses should be assessed every two years. All other courses and programs should be assessed every six years at a minimum. More frequent assessment is generally recommended in order to allow for meaningful reflection and the utilization of SLO assessments for continuous improvement.

Part-time faculty have invaluable knowledge about how students are achieving the outcomes in their courses, and are always welcome to dialogue about learning outcomes achievement in their departments and participate in assessment reporting should they choose to do so. Part-time faculty are not responsible for SLO assessment reporting unless they have agreed to do the work as part of the Adjunct Faculty College Service and Professional Development Program, and have coordinated this with their chair and/or dean.

General Education Learning Outcomes (GELOs) are assessed via a mapping of our program-level outcomes to our GELOs. Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) are assessed annually as part of the graduate exit survey (must be logged in through campus network to access).

Student Services and Administrative areas also conduct Service Area Outcomes (SAO) assessments for their programs. Each program establishes its outcomes (or uses the outcomes associated with a grant), and assesses these outcomes in the College Integrated Planning System (CIPS).

Course student learning outcomes (CSLOs) are created through CRC’s curricular processes; please see the Curriculum Handbook for more information on how to write or revise a CSLO/PSLO. 

All CSLO assessments at CRC are formally documented in the College Integrated Planning System (CIPS). Watch this step-by-step video about conducting instructional learning outcomes assessment. This video is also linked directly in CIPS.

CIPS provides a form to walk you through the assessment process. The form asked for the number of instructors contributing to the report, the number of sections included in the analysis, the date range for the assessment, and a rating of whether or not students on average achieved each SLO. To explain these ratings, you are asked to provide the type of data analyzed (grades, exam items, student self-assessments, etc.), an explanation of any learnings, as well as any potential curricular, programmatic, or collegewide implications of the assessment results. Submitting an assessment will not overwrite colleagues’ previous assessments; all recorded assessments are visible by clicking the link in the “Previous Assessments” column.

One way to approach CSLO assessment is to use the backwards-design process, where you start by interrogating the SLOs for your course. The most important question is the following: How will you know that a student has demonstrated achievement of each outcome? (This assumes that your CSLOs are measurable.) Then, you map every assignment and activity in the course to the CSLOs, so that you have plenty of data to use for assessment. In the backwards-design process, you must consider what to do with assignments/activities that you cannot map to a CSLO and their utility to students’ learning.

Many instructors have good success with student self assessment via short reflection assignments that incorporate language from the CSLOs. If you are interested in a more quantitative approach, you might consider a survey. The Research Office provides survey templates that you can modify to fit your course. The mid-course survey and end-of-course survey both include questions that ask students to self-rate their progress towards achieving the course outcomes. Please reach out to CRC-Research@crc.losrios.edu if you would like assistance implementing these survey templates.

Consider linking your CSLOs to your assignments in Canvas! Canvas video: Canvas - Easy Assessment of Outcome Achievement. Though there is set-up involved, this can reduce your long-term workload and help reveal hidden insights.

Our accreditors ask that we systematically disaggregate CSLO assessments. Doing so can help with planning to ensure that students of all backgrounds are able to master our learning outcomes. The type of disaggregation needed might vary by context and subject matter. For example, if your department offers the same course both asynchronously and synchronously online, you might choose to look at whether students in both formats are achieving the learning outcomes at the same rate, or if there is any disproportionate impact between these groups.

Mapping your CSLOs to your course assignments in Canvas is one way to disaggregate them. If you do so, the Research Office can set up a dashboard for you to review disaggregated SLO achievement. Reach out to us at CRC-Research@crc.losrios.edu. Incorporating student self-assessments is another way to disaggregate SLOs; if you collect self assessments by student ID, the Research Office can help with disaggregation.

If your final course grades represent student achievement of your CSLOs, disaggregating your course success data is another way to see how various student groups are doing in terms of CSLO achievement. It is never a requirement to refer solely to grades when assessing students’ achievement of learning outcomes, though it can be a worthwhile exercise to consider how grading aligns with CSLO mastery in your courses.

Program student learning outcomes (PSLOs) are created through CRC’s curricular processes; please see the Curriculum Handbook for more information on how to write or revise a PSLO. 

All PSLO assessments at CRC are formally documented in the College Integrated Planning System (CIPS). As with CSLO assessments, CIPS offers a form to walk you through the PSLO assessment process. The form asked for the names or number of instructors contributing to the report and a rating of whether or not students on average achieved each PSLO. You are then asked to provide an explanation of any learnings, as well as any curricular, programmatic, or collegewide implications of the assessment results. Submitting an assessment will not overwrite colleagues’ previous assessments; all recorded assessments are visible by clicking the link in the View Submitted Assessments column.

Anyone with access to CIPS can view the assessments submitted by all areas. CRC has previously cited Biology, Culinary Arts Management, DSPS, and Nutrition as programs with examples of meaningful course and program assessments.

If you do not have access to CIPS, reach out to CRC-Research@crc.losrios.edu for access.