LA HARBORCOLLEGE

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)/Service Area Outcomes (SAO)

Student Services Assessment Report

Department Name: Extended Opportunity Programs and Services

Department Head: Mercedes YanezPhone: ______

Reviewed by: Lora Lane, SLO Assessment CoordinatorDate: March 2012

Attach additional pages as necessary.

Institutional Learning Outcomes/
College Goals / Intended Outcomes / Means of Assessment and Criteria for Success / Summary of Data Collected / Use of Results
Goal 2 / 1. Students will successfully complete their educational goal within the limits of program eligibility. / Track the number of students who have completed a long-term educational plan
Require students to submit a progress report once each semester
Use SARS to track which students are attending workshops and use surveys to track student satisfaction with workshops
Monitor graduation and transfer rates
Use end-of-semester surveys to track student satisfaction with program services
Survey graduating students to determine the overall usefulness of program services
Use pre and post quizzes to gauge students’ knowledge of program responsibilities and limitations / When surveyed at the end of the Fall 2011 semester, 92% of our students reported that they had a fully-completed SEP that listed all of the classed necessary for obtaining their educational goal.
At this time, our progress report is collected on paper instead of electronically. This makes it difficult to track the rate of submission. We have asked the Matriculation Committee district-wide for assistance in moving to electronic progress reports through the Early Alert System.
For 2008-2009, 55% of our students attended a workshop. For 2009-2010, 36% attended a workshop. For 2010-2011, 62% attended a workshop. At this time very few students are completing the optional workshop assessment.
Over the past three years, the number of graduating EOPS students has consistently represented 10% of the college’s graduating class. During this timeframe, on average 56% of EOPS students have transferred.
Each semester, we ask students to complete an End-Of-Semester survey that measures a number of facets of our program services.
Despite recent cuts to the program’s budget, students have reported that they remain satisfied with our services. For Fall 2011, at least 60% of our students have reported satisfaction with program services like the EOPS Book Grant, Counseling Availability, Tutoring, and our EOPS Book Loan Library.
Our EOPS Graduate Survey conducted in Spring 2011 revealed that the five most utilized services of the program were the EOPS Book Grant, Workshops, Priority Registration, Academic Counseling, and Transfer Assistance. When asked to comment on our services, most students reported feeling fine with our offerings with only a few students requesting an increase in the EOPS Book Grant or Counselor availability.
Our Pre and Post Orientation quiz reveals that students have a high degree of familiarity with the program before orientation, with nearly 70% of students answering the five questions that test program requirement awareness right, and a good retention of the information provided during orientation with 88% of students answering all five questions right after orientation. / While we are happy with the number of students who have completed SEPs, we know that the wait to meet with a counselor to develop an SEP can be long and, with the dates for priority registration being moved up in our district, we are worried that more students may not be able to utilize this important program benefit.
Although students haven’t indicated it on the Workshop Verification form, informal communication with students reveals that they are happy about the workshops and feel they add value to their educational experience, so we will work to improve the number of students attending workshops by reinstating our policy to deduct money from the EOPS Book Grant for not attending a workshop.
Looking back to 2004, the EOPS percentage of L.A. Harbor College graduates hovered around 14% until 2009, which was the first year of our 40% budget reduction. We are worried that this decline will continue until our program budget is fully restored.
Despite the fact that we have had to reduce services, and despite the fact that our students are suffering more due to the economic downturn, our students continue to show appreciation for our services. We believe this is attributable to the fact that our students are used to doing more with less. However, as indicated by the declining graduation rate, we are worried that these reductions will impact students’ ability to complete their educational goals in a timely manner.
While we are satisfied with the results of our EOPS Graduate Survey, we will try to increase the participation in the survey. Currently, only half of our graduating students participate in the survey.
We were surprised to see how many students are aware of the program’s requirements before orientation. One staff member reported seeing students browsing our website before the start of orientation, so it’s possible they are gaining the information from the website. While we feel the information retention rate after orientation is good, we will continue to make modifications to our orientation to bring the number even higher.
ISLO 5 / 2. Students will obtain important life skills through workshops and seminars. / Use SARS to track which students are attending workshops and seminars and use surveys to track student satisfaction with workshops and seminars
Testing and homework assignments in PD 17 classes
Use EOPS counseling visits to assess students’ well being / Instructor reads weekly journal to determine what students thinking is on the subjects of positive/negative awareness of self-image, career choice and goal setting.
90% of CARE respondents have shared during counseling visits that they are struggling with finances, child care and time management.
80% of EOPS respondents report struggling with finances, time management and attending intervention (tutoring) to address a subject deficiency. / Faculty will explore adding financial literacy to course description.
Faculty referral to the campus Life Skills Center to help students’ deal with the stressors associated with economic barriers and low self-esteem.
Partnering with other campus programs (CalWORKs, Life Skills Center, Health Center, Financial Aid, Literacy Center and Learning Assistance Center) to leverage support services and support student success.
Closely working with the Student Services Cluster to prioritize hiring priorities based on division/program needs as supported by student data.
Closely working with the Office of Economic & Workforce Development to identify new funding opportunities to help leverage program funds cut by 40% in 2008-2009.
ISLO 3 / 3. Students will expand their engagement in a technologically literate society through communication and demonstration. / Use existing tools like Google Analytics to track interaction on EOPS websites
Use Facebook statistics to track level of involvement on social media sites
Use surveying tools to measure student’s participation with technology
Track signup for and participation in online workshops / As of yet we’ve been unable to enable website usage tracking this is something we’re working on for the near future. Our end-of-semester survey indicates that 88% of our students have visited our webpage.
We currently have 138 likes on Facebook. Our end-of-semester survey shows that only 30% of our students have visited our Facebook page.
On average 6 students sign-up for online workshops offered. / We are seeing good participation with our website and will continue to use it as a resource to communicate with students.
There is pretty low participation in the rest of the technological resources we offer students. We have to try to re-evaluate those services to identify the barriers, which may be:
  • The comfort level of the student.
  • The lack of access to a computer at home.
  • Our offerings are not appealing to them (workshops/Facebook).
  • Facebook interaction with the program may not appeal to them because they have to self-identify.