Start of Chemistry SLO RESEARCH

Today I took the first step in my research for the implementation of student learning outcomes process for various community college programs.  I decided that my strategy would be to, first of all, gather as much as I can from websites and then contact individuals by email to request responses to four or five questions I have outlined in my sabbatical proposal:  what the SLO's are, how they are assesed, what type of analysis and dialogue take place, and how they are integrated into program planning.

My first google search used the keywords chemistry student learning outcomes.  One of the surprising results to me was the fact that less than 10% of the first 4 pages of results were for community colleges.  Some of these include, Mt Sac, Sacramento City College, Moorpark, and College of San Mateo.  I believe all of these list their chemistry SLO's online but only one showed a full report showing the SLO, assessment method, results, analysis, and plans.  This was Sacramento City College.  I like the excel spreadsheet they use to document results and I plan to suggest to Mike and Rich the use of a similar spreadsheet to document our own results.

I also looked at the Santa Rosa Junior College's website to see what their SLO's are but I couldn't find them on the website. I chose this college because I know that they typically get very good accreditation evaluations.

After further internet research, my next plan is to identify ten colleges to contact by email with the questions.  I will likely share with them what our current process is.  I am hoping out of these 10, at least three will give me a complete report!