Each of the following narrative responses is limited to 250 words. As you develop your
responses, please be mindful of success stories that can be reported in the last question of
this section. We look forward to including this information from colleges in our report to
the Commission and the field in June.
36. Please discuss alignment of student learning outcomes at your institution, from
institutional and course to program level. Describe your activities beyond crosswalking or
charting all outcomes to courses in a program (often called “mapping”), to analysis and
implementation of alignment in the planning of curriculum and delivery of instruction.
Discuss how the alignment effort has resulted in changes of expected outcomes and/or
how students’ programs of study have been clarified. Note whether the described
practices apply to all instructional programs at the college (1,250 character limit,
approximately 250 words).
37. Describe the various communication strategies at your college to share SLO assessment
results for usage by internal and external audiences. Explain how communications take
into account how the information is expected to influence the behavior or decisions of
particular audiences. Discuss how communication of student learning outcomes
assessment information and results impacts student behavior and achievement (1,250
character limit, approximately 250 words).
38. Explain how dialog and reporting of SLO assessment results takes place at the
departmental and institutional levels. Note whether practices involve all programs at the
college. Illustrate how dialog and reporting impact program review, institutional planning,
resource allocation, and institutional effectiveness (1,250 character limit,
approximately 250 words).
The AHC Institutional Assessment Plan assists faculty and staff in alignment of outcomes, as well
as analysis of assessments and changing outcomes. The final step of the basic four-step
assessment process outlined is reflection and revision. Using this process, faculty have made
significant changes and improvement plans; for example, the Spanish department changed all
their course level SLOs to better align with program level SLOs. At AHC, SLOs are reviewed
every year either through a comprehensive program review (every 6 years) or annual program
review update. Curriculum changes and instructional resource needs are documented annually.
For example, Geology faculty realized the need for more mineral identification resources through
this process.
AHC uses faculty SLOs Liaisons and Coordinators, as well as the faculty chairs of the Learning
Outcomes and Assessment Committees (LOACS) to communicate and promote dialog on SLOs
assessment to departments. The Academic and Student Services LOACs report to Student
Learning and Student Services Councils, which in turn report to College Council. The shared
governance College Council facilitates communication college-wide on policy and planning, and
assigns college-wide goals, objectives and priorities. SLOs information that comes either through
councils or the program review process directly impacts strategic goals and resource allocation.
An example was the 2011-12 AHC strategic direction of improving basic skills outcomes.
SLOs dialog and reporting from all campus programs occur at Assessment Days, and at LOAC
and other meetings, as mentioned earlier. In addition, there have been presentations on SLOs at
All Staff Convocation days and in campus newsletters. SLOs results and resource requests are
forwarded to Cabinet-level administrators, who bring them annually to the strategic planning
retreat. The retreat usually is attended by 100 or so faculty and staff from all areas and
constituencies, as well as students and governing board members. At the retreat, needs and
resources based on outcomes are prioritized and guide future planning directions as well as
suggested funding sources, i.e. district, categorical, foundation and/or grants.
