CSLO

The guideline on how the Curriculum Committee evaluates SLOs when approving new and revised courses was approved on February 14, 2012. It will be forwarded to De Anza College Academic Senate for approval.

Approved February 14, 2012

Does the Curriculum Committee evaluate SLOs when approving new and revised courses?
The Curriculum Committee is responsible for reviewing all the sections of a course outline and curriculum proposals, but trusts the expertise of department faculty regarding the appropriate content of the course. The Curriculum Committee does ensure that all the sections of the course outline of record are followed and in line with Title 5 requirements and the Statewide Academic Senate’s Course Outline of Record: A Curriculum Reference Guide.

The Curriculum Committee will review SLOs in a similar way to how it reviews course objectives. The committee primarily checks for measurable verbs and appropriateness of scope. The committee will comment or make recommendations if SLOs do not seem to align with course content—especially in topics II & V (objectives and expanded objectives) and with topic VIII (Methods of Evaluating Objectives). For assistance with how to write topic VIII, please see the course outline format on the curriculum committee website.

Specifically, the committee will review that the outcome statements are:

  • Clear measurable outcomes that tie to the course description (use of measurable verbs/Bloom’s taxonomy)
  • Understandable to those new or “outside” the discipline, as well as by students
  • Clearly over-arching as opposed to course objectives in II and V which may be more distinct as they serve as the specific building blocks for course content
  • Supported by the curricular content in the outline
  • Addressing higher-level thinking ABILITIES (which get measured in VIII): ability to synthesize; specific demonstrable results
  • Connected and appropriate to the scope of the course.  (i.e. Do these SLOs reflect the specifics of this course?
  • Aligned with topic VIII (Methods of Evaluating Objectives) in that the criteria for evaluation connect back to the outcome statement

If a department wants to change the SLOs for a course, does the entire course come under review by the Curriculum Committee?
This will be considered a technical revision. However, with the implementation of the new TracDat system, departments will have the ability to revise/change outcome statements in that system as frequently as they find necessary and appropriate per their assessment results. If the SLOs are revised substantially, the change can be made on the course outline as a technical revision. For minor revisions to SLO statements departments can wait until their course is due for their 5-year review to update to their most current SLO statements at the same time they make other course revisions.

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