Student Learner Outcomes - the Cabrillo Experience (One Way )

SLO Assessment Journey – The Cabrillo Library Experience

Georg Romero, Library Director, Cabrillo College Library

April 15, 2010

Introduction

Presentation focus on services (free-range audience, hard to capture, challenging), not classes/workshops (captive audience, easier)
In 2005:
Almost nothing available on assessing services, plenty on assessing classes
Focus on startinghaving SLOs
In 2010:
A little more information available:
Timely SLO survey from 2009, conducted by June Turner (Palo Verde)
A few colleges have some services covered in their SLOs (Cabrillo, Cuyamaca, Los Medanos)
A few sessions like this one
Focus is on measurement, & actionsbeing taken

Getting Started

So, how did we start in 2005?
Challenge: how to attribute specific learning outcome to quick transaction-based services?
Assumption: new requirement is not intended to be onerous, not expecting more effort than benefit
Decision: we will make this useful for us, not just pay lip service to a requirement
Early step: creation of campus “core” competencies (link)
Key: decision to measure service operations against the core competencies, rather than require creating individual SLOs
Affected: Library, Student Services, LearningCenters, etc.
Minimized the fear & trepidation.

The Process

First step: what are our services?

Regular faculty-driven meetings - invited all library staff, not just faculty librarians
Identify all services, both direct & indirect
Correlate services with core competencies
Identify possible assessment/measurement methods, if any
Some assessment alternatives identified, each with advantages/disadvantages:
Narrative descriptions
Focus groups
Post-transaction sampling interviews/surveys
User surveys
Selected a survey assessment, as most actionable for the most services (& most useful to us)

The Results

Key: SLO mindset among staff: “what are we teaching our students?”
Key: “Institutionalized” process as part of five-year program planning cycle
Regular annual library user surveys, regularly modified
Posted statistics & other data on web, so we can find & share them easily
Sailed through accreditation, with a commendation!
Looking back, would I change anything? No – shared voyage of discovery, how we got there almost more important than where we arrived.

About Those Surveys…

Having students self-assess on core competencies is legitimate(remaining two core competencies to be included in Fall 2010 survey)
More than just the usual general satisfaction survey: we learned what students were doing, how long they had been here, identified some service trouble-spots
Survey is changed regularly, to focus on current issues – look for patterns, survey comments, etc.

Discoveries & Actions

Discovered students do believe the Library’s services & staff improve their learning
Discovered:
Strong dissatisfaction with aging laptops (we got new ones)
Unhappiness with computer logon requirement (calmed down after first semester)
Desire for more computers (working on it) and word processing (have it)
Newer students less satisfied/impressed with library (we initiated a “greeter” program during 1st wk of fall semesters, labor-intensive…)
Focused Circulation more on teaching/learning, less on punishment
Increased responsiveness of Technical Services to specific student needs
Increased “team” mindset across the board, & across functional boundaries

The Future

Handy URLs