SLO Facilitated Workshop Evaluation

							                                     Bakersfield College
                               SLO Workshop Evaluation Summary
                                        October 2003


1. Place a check by any of the following reasons that are significant to you concerning motivation to write
SLOs: Blue % is by participants (119 participants) Red % is by evaluations turned-in (87 evaluations)
                         Requirements in the California Master plan for each faculty member to have
 48 = 40.3% 55.1%        SLOs for their classes
 46 = 38.6% 52.8%        Requirements in the California Education code for assessment and outcomes
  53 = 44.5% 60.9% Accreditation requirements for classroom level SLOs and assessment procedures
                         Personal benefit and direction that SLOs provide for planning and delivering
  66 = 55.4% 75.8% course material
  52 = 43.6% 59.7% The benefit in assigning grades by having clearly stated outcomes
  23 = 19.3% 26.4% The incentive provided by BC for those faculty completing their SLOs
Please tell us any additional motivations you have other than the ones listed above:
  The benefit in assigning grades by having clearly stated outcomes
                   Not nec.                                               Yes
    By this I mean the benefit that the student gets from having a goals/objectives sheet included in their syllabus that
     has been distilled from the SLO’s
    As we re-design and update courses, SLO’s are critical advisory information and validation for program
    Increase student understanding of class goals/outcomes
    Having peer input (opinion of others) in the improvement of my course(s) & how I may improve my teaching
     abilities
    Improve communication/learning process between student-teacher
    I develop my lesson plans by first identifying the student outcomes first, then developing plans that will lead them
     to objective
    Benefit to students from the clarity, precision, & necessary focus
    Help me to be a better teacher
    Motivation for faculty to get together and share ideas to improve teaching
    If we write more effective SLOs our students will be more confident in the educational process
    To increase consistency between sections of same class.
    Improve students’ education, my ability to teach
    I’d like to learn how this ties into the overall teaching and learning process, i.e. having S’s develop meta-cognitive
     skills as well as then critical thinking.
    Unifying the departments


2. What do you think is the most difficult part of writing SLOs?
    Getting started – organizing it
    Writing them 
    Getting specific templates & examples of good SLOs
    Writing them without seeing good ones
    Understanding what a SLO “really” is
    It’s challenging to select active words with measurable skills
    Looking at very specific course objectives & broadening them out & still be measurable
    Concrete objective with measurable outcomes
    Finding measurable outcomes, determining shared outcomes for sets of pre-requisite courses.
    I’m a little unclear regarding the importance of “measurable” outcomes and direction in how to make them
     measurable.
    Choosing the right words keeping it global
    Comprehensive, thorough approach to doing this, i.e. integrating the 3 domains & finding appropriate verbs to
     guide eventual measurements.
    For me, writing just a few SLOs for a course is difficult. In order to have measurable SLOs, I tend to focus at a
     specific level of course content rather than global.
    Choosing the fundamental outcomes of the course.
    To focus and redefine my teaching
    Being so specific I can’t get creative with my class
    It feels constricting and removed spontaneity of teaching
    How specific, how general to be
    There are so many different skills. It’s hard to boil it down to several SLOs.
    Condensing 50 objectives into 5
    Prioritizing for 5 SLOs
    For me, the most difficult part of SLOs is the narrowing process, articulating the core issues.
    Fine tuning
    Turning goals to measurable outcomes
    How it may differ from current objectives
    Refining their content to really reflect the goals, & knowing what the best/most important goals are!
    It’s not difficult – it’s getting you to think about goals sequentially
    Just not having to do it before – except when I was in a teaching credential program
    Anticipating how SLO will be assessed (thinking ahead so it’s done right the first time)
    Writing them so others, who do not teach the course, will understand them
    Finding the right words!!
    Picking a good action verb
    Learning the language
    Writing clearly
    Wording. 
    Organizing and developing clear, concrete language
    Using specific terminology in appropriate ways to describe what I already do.
    Taking time to do them
    Have time to do it.
    Matching what will provide learning and understanding with methods and techniques used
    Getting everyone motivated to participate
    Dealing with the great diversity of the class – age – knowledge, etc.
    Knowing the “audience”. Who is judging the “output”?
    Agreeing with everyone


3. Place a check by any of the following ways in which this facilitated workshop helped you to develop your
SLOs
 57 = 47.8% 65.5% Working with people in my department was helpful
 46 = 38.6% 52.8% Working with people from other disciplines was helpful
 65 = 54.6% 74.7% Having dedicated time set aside was helpful
 61 = 51.2% 70.1% Reviewing other people’s SLOs was helpful
 64 = 53.7% 73.5% Specific guidance on writing SLOs was helpful
 43 = 36.1% 49.4% Opportunity to ask course specific questions was helpful
Please tell us any additional considerations you have other than the ones listed above:
    Good starting point info
    List on board of common themes from one area
    More time, as you mentioned, would have been beneficial
    Great job! Thanks – very helpful
    Action verbs were helpful
    This is too much busy work – Why not use “California Math Standards” that are already in existence.
    We need more time as a department
    Samples of good SLO’s would be helpful.


4. Please share any comments, thoughts or suggestions you have that might help improve our attempt to
facilitate this process on campus.
    Encourage faculty to share current work on SLO’s with others
    Perhaps a chat room for input
   Perhaps work with individual depts. As time goes on to encourage a number of short meetings to keep initiative
     rolling.
   Any follow-up workshops after SLOs have been written
   I appreciate the opportunity to get some direction & application; I also appreciate the openness & access to follow-
     up support.
   More time spent on SLOs
   It was helpful to have a facilitator from a different department.
   Do some cross discipline writing in teams English – Science, etc.
   Comparisons between disciplines can be very interesting and insightful
   Thank you. Very valuable
   Thanks. I know this is hard work for you, but you can feel good about your contribution.
   I appreciate this custom service!
   I appreciate you willingness to help, and the fact that you all have bought in to the process.
   Very well presented well done. Much better idea of what to do for SLOs
   Thanks for making them more clear
   The seminar was great. Each time I come away with new ideas for improving my approach to teaching and
     evaluating.
   Great stat to a process that needs to take place in my dept, especially as we review curriculum
   Thank you for beginning at the beginning. It helps to first understand the “why’s” then the “how’s” and then write
     SLO
   Thank you so much for asking all our difficult questions; sharing expertise from your areas and classrooms was
     great.
   Handouts were very useful – especially the 3 on the domains and associated action words
   Explain the difference and how to choose which domain sheet to use.
   Give us an example or 2 of good SLO’s not just the definition. It would make it much more clear
   Maybe ask us to try to write a few SLOs before coming to the seminar.
   Check our SLOs for correctness
   Program outcome will be much harder than class SLO
   This was fairly new to me today, I need to spend some time to think it through and consult with others
   Both Chris & Janet were very enthusiastic & it was felt thru-out the 2-hour presentation.
   Too much time spent on the initial purple sheet.
   No examples of “good” SLOs to help us understand the concept and use as a template.
   Ran out of time for viewing other people’s SLOs; need time for this.
   Thank you. Shaky start; great ending.