Part A. Defining and Teaching Learning Outcomes

1. At what levels (course, program, institution, other) have learning outcomes been identified and defined at your college?

CCBC has identified and defined learning outcomes at the course, program and institution level. Presently, the general education core courses have ten to fifteen well-developed, well-defined learning outcomes. These will be posted on the college’s website. Common course outlines have been developed for all other courses across the three campuses. Each of the outlines has ten to fifteen or more learning outcomes that have been identified as "the minimum expected outcomes" which all faculty must include in their course syllabus. The outlines are at various stages of development and will be completed by the end of FY2002. A sub-committee of the General Education Review Board is working individually with faculty, program coordinators and division directors to more clearly define the learning outcomes and provide consistency across the campuses.

2. In what ways are stakeholders at your college involved in identifying and teaching learning outcomes, and which stakeholders are involved?
   
   We have broad-based participation among the stakeholders involved in identifying and teaching learning outcomes.

3. In what ways do learning facilitators throughout the college design learning activities that provide students with opportunities to achieve these outcomes, and what training do they receive?

Each year faculty, based on approved performance objectives, are expected to enhance existing learning activities and develop alternative instructional strategies to facilitate student achievement of learning outcomes. The college faculty utilizes a broad variety of alternative teaching strategies such as distance learning options, collaborative instruction, student research, classroom research, learning communities and others. The college encourages innovation in this area through summer grants, Virtual Academy Training, the Teachers Learning Computers Program, to name a few. In addition, the college has a strong commitment to staff and professional development and provides a wide array of activities both internal and external to the institution.

In addition, the college has developed a number of important strategies and groups to help infuse the concept of outcomes based learning through out the institution. These include but are not limited to:

4. What strategies (e.g., outcomes-based curriculum design models, alignment of learning outcomes with institutional mission and values, outcomes-based professional development activities) have been used to embed outcomes-based learning and teaching in the culture of your college?

As a result of having begun a learning outcomes assessment program nearly three years ago, the college has effectively institutionalized the process. The college’s strategic plan, LearningFIRST, has as its core strategic direction, Student Learning—this is the framework that connects planning at all levels and drives the answers to the two key learning college questions:

1. What does this student know?
2. What can this student do? And how do we know?

Part B: 

1. What plans or processes are under way at your college to build or adopt assessment methods capable of determining, with consistency across the institution, the level at which each student achieves each relevant course, program, and institutional learning outcome?

We have done this at a variety of levels. At the course level we have conducted in excess of fifty learning outcomes assessment projects over the past two years, all of which included external validation procedures. Faculty, under the direction of the learning outcomes associate, developed these. Our current plans include expanding the program to include five projects in FY2002 that will focus on high impact courses across the three campuses. High impact courses are those which touch large numbers of students: Psychology 101, Accounting 101, Reading 052, Mathematics 083, and English 052.

At the program level, all programs will be identifying and defining program learning outcomes (goals) and methods of assessment. All programs will be expected to incorporate program learning outcomes assessment as part of the program review process.

Finally, we are investigating and reviewing a variety of assessment tools to assist us in our evaluation of student attainment of institutional learning outcomes. These include, standardized tests (Academic Profile), and "GREAT" (General Education Assessment Team) Projects at the moment.

2. What plans or processes are under way at your college to expand methods of documenting student learning beyond the traditional transcript (e.g., annotated transcripts, electronic portfolios)?
   
   We are currently developing a pilot project for incorporating electronic portfolios into our Banner system.

3. In what ways is your college addressing faculty, staff, and student resistance to and fear of assessment and documentation of student learning?
   

We have, from the beginning, determined that outcomes assessment must be implemented in a risk-free environment. All stakeholders must be confident that the results of any particular outcomes assessment will not be used in a negative or punitive way. We have institutionalized learning outcomes assessment as a learning improvement process at all levels in the institution.

4. What strategies have been effectively used to promote development of a culture of evidence at your college?

   At CCBC students are expected to provide evidence to faculty in terms of attainment of course and program outcomes. Faculty and staff are expected to provide evidence of attainment of learning based performance objectives in the college’s evaluation process. Program directors are expected to provide evidence of program goal attainment in the Program Review Process. The Chancellor and presidents are expected to provide evidence of institutional goal attainment to the Board of Trustees. Finally, CCBC has invested heavily in a comprehensive Institutional Research Office to provide research and data to support these activities, which are a major component of our culture of evidence in the Learning College.