PURPOSES

OF SLO
PRESENTED BY MIKAELA ALTO AND SHIELA ALVAREZ
Student Learning
Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes are
statements that specify what students
will know, be able to do, or be able to
demonstrate when they have completed
or participated in a Course or Program.
(Oxnard College)
 PURPOSE OF SLO

1. Increased student awareness of their own

learning.
A way to think and talk about what they have
learned. They make it easier for students to “know
what they know”.
 2. Frameworks for course
design and redesign
Identifying student learning goals help faculty
structure their courses, identify pedagogical
strategies, and design assignments, tests, projects,
class discussions, and other course elements to
help students meet those goals.
 3. A method for program planning

Program planning is an annual process during

which departments develop and align SLOs to
PLOs, develop and cultivate instructional
strategies to improve student learning, and
document the activities.
4. A map for curricular assessment and
change

Use of learning goals helps programs think about

curriculum. When learning goals are defined,
programs can determine the courses that address
each goal.
 A method for
instructional
assessment
Course-based and program learning goals and their
assessment demonstrate how learning goals are translated
through the lenses and curriculum of the disciplines those
units represent. Furthermore, they can show larger units
within the institution how the parts relate to the whole.
 Improved academic
advising
Learning goals for each course are an important
first step toward clearly communicating expectations
to students, assisting them, and their advisors, in
matching courses and majors with student interests
and capabilities.
 Evidence for
accreditation
Accrediting agencies have modified their
requirements to include student learning goals
and evidence that assessment of student learning
relative to those goals is used in curricular
improvement.