SLO Songs and Videos

Need a break from your assessment and accreditation efforts? Then relax and enjoy the music videos about Student Learning Outcomes posted on YouTube.

Dr. Lloyd S. Thomas of West Los Angeles College has posted his renditions and performances of three different songs about SLOs:









The deadline for entering "The SLO Song" Music Video Contest sponsored by Las Positas College is over and "stewartjm" has posted his entry for your viewing pleasure:




The results of the contest are not yet posted but you may want to check the contest's home page for updates or download the audio file (Originally recorded by Panic! At the Disco-"I Write Sins Not Tragedies”, New lyrics by Lauren Hasten, Vocals by Tanya Pray and Lauren Hasten).

If you prefer something a little less hard but which still has a beat, the SLOs home page of Cabrillo College presents “The Core-4 Anthem” written and performed by Rory O'Brien.

If you're tired of music, try watching the following short clip on Student Learning Outcomes from a humorous play ("The Sins of Dr. Albright") courtesy of Santa Monica College:




In another entertaining stage production, Cañada College combined video and live performers for the August 2008 FLEX Day presentation by their SLOAC Players of the eight minute “Assessment Zone” video from Fredriksberg Community College:




Additional materials from ACCJC accredited colleges will be added to this post as I find them.

October 2009 Accreditation Reports

The Action Letters and Reports page of The Follow-Up Report has been updated to include links to October 2009 accreditation reports. The page now includes links to thirteen 2009 Institutional Self-Studies and an additional eighteen October 2009 reports from the community colleges in the ACCJC region.

Also, the first draft of a new page with links to the Research, Planning, and Assessment web pages and related documents from the colleges has finally been completed and will be added to the site when the second draft is finished.

Themes in the Accreditation Standards

The following is a presentation of the six themes in the 2002 ACCJC accreditation standards from the Guide to Evaluating Institutions. Additional comments and nineteen original charts or illustrations have been added to the presentation to help clarify the themes.

TFR Accreditation Standards SixThemes(3) 2009-08-18TVT

Assessment, Research, and Planning Glossary

The following glossary contains terms from the fields of assessment, evaluation, testing, research design, statistics, planning, administration, and management. While there are many glossaries available online for these fields, this one combines common and technical terms from all of these fields in a single downloadable resource (of approximately 190 pages) to assist education practitioners and institutions concerned with increasing institutional effectiveness, improving student learning outcomes, and achieving continuous quality improvement throughout the assessment and planning cycles.

TFR Guide Assessment Glossary 2009-08-01 TVT

At-Risk Colleges in the ACCJC Region

The Commission Actions and Status page of The Follow-Up Report has been revised to incorporate the June 2009 actions of the Commission. New charts have been added to illustrate the 2003-2009 trends. The following charts illustrate the trend for an increased proportion of ACCJC colleges being classified as at-risk:

Sixty-seven schools have been sanctioned (Warning, Probation, or Show Cause status) by the Commission one or more times between January 2003 and June 2009. In other words, half (49.3%) of the schools in the ACCJC region have been sanctioned within a seven-year period. An additional fifty-five schools (40.4%) had to have their continued accreditation status confirmed through a Follow-Up, Interim, Progress, or Focused Midterm Report showing progress on resolving issues of concern to the commission. Only 14 schools (10.3%) had their accreditation affirmed or reaffirmed without first being sanctioned or required to submit a confirmation report.

The average number of schools sanctioned per year increased by 364% from 2003 (5.5 schools) to 2009 (25.5 schools) with the average percentage of schools sanctioned per year increasing from a low of about four percent (2003) to a high of over eighteen percent (2008 and 2009).

ACCJC June 2009 Commission Actions

The June 2009 actions of the ACCJC Commission are now available on the "Recent Commission Actions" page of their website and some colleges have already posted copies online of their action letters and corresponding accreditation reports. The "Action Letters and Reports" page of The Follow-Up Report has been updated with the latest actions and available links for each college. The following table summarizes the actions of the Commission for 2009 (click on the image to see a larger version of the table):

The June 2009 actions will soon be added to the analysis and charts on the "Commission Actions and Status" page of The Follow-Up Report. Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that over 300 degrees, programs, or certificates were submitted for substantive change approval in June for exceeding 50% or more delivery through a distance or electronic delivery mode (more than twice the number submitted for approval in January). It appears that the rumors and warnings of a "rampant creep" of offerings to online delivery without the required prior approval of the Commission may have been accurate. I wonder how many colleges are currently auditing their offerings and writing after-the-fact requests for substantive change approvals? How many more should be? How much additional catch-up time will the Commission give us before it starts issuing sanctions?

Visualizing the Standards: More Wordles

I've created a variety of different wordles (mostly Wordle Word Clouds) from the text of the 2002 ACCJC Accreditation Standards and posted them on Picassa. You can click on the header or on the slide show itself to go to the Picassa album and download individual images for you own use or you can go to the standards data set on Many Eyes to create your own visualizations to liven up a report or presentation.

Standards Wordles on Picassa:

Visualizing the Standards: Interactive Wordles

I've also posted the following Wordle on the Many Eyes website based on the text of the 2002 standards. The Wordle algorithm uses the freqency of a term to determine the relative size of a word as in other tag clouds but it also enables the placement of smaller words in the spaces between and within letters of the larger words. The results are much more varied than standard tag clouds and can create typographic images which remind me of Dadaism in the late 1910s and early 1920s, Futurism in the 1920s and 1930s, California alternative publications in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the work of David Carson in the 1990s. Although Wordle was designed to be a playful image generator (often refered to as a "toy") rather than an analytical technique, it is frequently used as a visual communication tool. The following Wordle was selected because the image reminds me of the thought bubbles in a cartoon and implies an institution thinking about the themes of the standards. The size, placement, and coloring of the terms can also suggest some of the thoughts of an institution "under" the standards ("institutional learning services student," "services support mission," "board provides planning," "planning outcomes effective," etc.).

Thoughtful Institution Wordle:

Visualizing the Standards: Interactive Word Trees

You can now create word trees of the ACCJC Accreditation Standards through IBM's Many Eyes website using the uploaded version of the standards I created with the numbering system removed. " A word tree is a visual search tool for unstructured text, such as a book, article, speech or poem. It lets you pick a word or phrase and shows you all the different contexts in which it appears. The contexts are arranged in a tree-like branching structure to reveal recurrent themes and phrases." (Many Eyes Word Tree Guide) The heading above the word tree includes a link to the saved tree based on the word "student". With IBM's interactive word trees you can click on a term to collapse branches into phrases (such as "student learning" or student learning outcomes"). You can create your own word trees from the standards by typing any word or phrase into the search box and hitting enter on your keyboard. You can also create other visualizations (Tag Clouds, Wordles, or Phrase Nets) from the standards by going to the data set page and clicking the visualize ikon. (Note: You may need to update the Java version on your computer to view or create interactive word trees or other visualizations.)

Student Word Tree:

Visualizing the Standards: Interactive Tag Clouds

Tag Clouds are a popular Web 2.0 visualization technique for the informal content analysis of texts and websites. They're frequently used by bloggers who want a more visually interesting index of their site. I've uploaded the text of the 2002 ACCJC Accreditation Standards to IBM's Many Eyes web site (http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/) and created the following sample tag cloud of the 200 most frequent terms in the standards. Move your cursor over a term to see its frequency in the standards and sample contexts. (Note: You may need to update the Java version on your computer to view this interactive tag cloud)

One Word Tag Cloud:

ACCJC Requirements for Institutional Mission Statements and Learning Outcomes

This presentation gives an overview of the ACCJC requirements regarding institutional mission statements and institutional learning outcomes. It is designed to be a reference aid or guide for groups tasked to assess their college mission or outcomes as part of a regular review or institutional self-study. The applicable sections of the 2004 Eligibility Requirements and the 2002 Accreditation Standards cited in the presentation are appended for easy reference.

Comparison of the current requirements to the current presentations of institutional missions and outcomes by ACCJC accredited colleges reveals a wide range in the apparent degree of understanding, application, and interpretation of these requirements. It appears many colleges in the region need to review and revise the wording or presentation of their institutional mission and outcomes statements to ensure or clarify that they meet current ACCJC requirements.

Links to the current institutional mission and outcomes statements of colleges in the ACCJC region can be found at:

https://sites.google.com/site/thefollowupreport/Home/institutional-mission-and-learning-outcomes

TFR_InstitutionalMissionILOs_2009-06-09_TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Other Research assessment accreditation standa

TFR Guide to the AAHE Principles of Good Practice

This TFR Guide is a copy of the nine principles of good practice for assessing student learning developed by the Assessment Forum of the American Association for Higher Education, AAHE, to improve post-secondary education outcomes. The AAHE principles are probably the most widely reproduced assessment guide in the educational community.

TFR_Guide_Assessment_AAHEprinciples_2009-06-04TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu research planning

TFR Guide to Admissions Department Assessment

This TFR Guide is a collection of sample mission statements, goals, objectives, performance indicators, Student Learning Outcomes, other outcomes, and assessments from various colleges to help student admissions or enrollment administrators, advisors, counselors, or representatives design, plan and achieve better department program reviews and outcomes assessments.

TFR_Guide_Assessment_Admissions_2007-06-26TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu research planning

TFR Guide to Career Services Assessment

This TFR Guide is a collection of sample mission statements, goals, objectives, performance indicators, Student Learning Outcomes, other outcomes, and assessments from various colleges to help student career services or job placement administrators, advisors, counselors, or staff design, plan, and achieve better department program reviews and outcomes assessments.

TFR_Guide_Assessment_CareerServices_2007-06-25TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu research planning

TFR Guide to Financial Aid Progam Assessment

This TFR Guide is a collection of sample mission statements, goals, objectives, performance indicators, Student Learning Outcomes, other outcomes, and assessments from various colleges to help financial aid advisors, administrators, or staff design, plan and achieve better department program reviews and outcomes assessments.

TFR_Guide_Assessment_FinancialAid_2007-06-25TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu research planning

TFR Guide to New Student Orientation Assessment

A collection of sample mission statements, goals, objectives, performance indicators, Student Learning Outcomes, other outcomes, and assessments from various colleges to help student orientation administrators, advisors, counselors, coordinators, or staff design, plan and achieve better department or event program reviews and outcomes assessments.
TFR_Guide_Assessment_Orientation_2007-06-27TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu research planning

TFR Guide to IT Services Assessment

This TFR Guide is a collection of sample mission statements, goals, objectives, performance indicators, Student Learning Outcomes, other outcomes, and assessments from various colleges to help IT, Information Technology, or Network Services administrators, technicians, or staff design, plan and achieve better department program reviews and outcomes assessments.


TFR_Guide_Assessment_ITservices_2007-06-26TVT

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TFR Guide to Registrar Office Assessment

This TFR Guide is a collection of sample mission statements, goals, objectives, performance indicators, Student Learning Outcomes or SLOs, other outcomes, and assessments from various colleges to help student and academic records administrators, registrars, or staff design, plan and achieve better department program reviews and outcomes assessments.


TFR_Guide_Assessment_Registrar_2007-06-26TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu research planning

TFR Guide to Retention Program Assessment

This TFR Guide is a collection of sample mission statements, goals, objectives, performance indicators, Student Learning Outcomes, other outcomes, and assessments from various colleges to help student retention advisors, academic counselors, administrators, and staff design, plan and achieve better department program reviews and outcomes assessments.

TFR_Guide_Assessment_Retention_2007-06-25TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu research planning

TFR Guide to Residential Life Assessments

This TFR Guide is a collection of sample mission statements, goals, objectives, performance indicators, SLOs, other outcomes, and assessments from various colleges to help student housing or residential life administrators and staff design, plan and achieve better department program reviews and outcomes assessments.


TFR_Guide_Assessment_ResidentialLife_2007-06-26TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu research planning

TFR Guide to Writing SLOs

This TFR Guide is a collection of tips, guides, mnemonic acronyms, techniques, and forms from several colleges and universities developed to help educators, administrators, and staff write more effective and measurable Student Learning Outcomes.
TFR_Guide_WritingSLOs_2007-06-21_v2009-05-31TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu research planning

TFR Guide to Bloom's Taxonomy

This TFR Guide contains a collection of various versions of Bloom's taxonomy of action verbs for the cognitive, affective, and pyschomotor domains from several colleges, universities, and educators to help instructors, administrators, and staff write more effective and measureable goals, objectives, and Student Learning Outcomes.

TFR_Guide_Bloom's_Rev2007-06-11_v2009-06-04TVT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu research planning

Web 2.0 in CCC assessment, planning, and accreditation efforts

I wonder if the experiments by some California community colleges with free Web 2.0 services in their assessment, planning, and accreditation efforts are related to the state's persistent budget problems. See:

• The Irvine Valley College SLO resource site on WordPress;
• The Mt. San Jacinto College 2009-10 catalog on Issuu;
• The Rio Hondo College institutional planning survey on SurveyMonkey;
• The Solano Community College show cause report and program review documents wikis on PBworks and the accreditation progress and basic skills blogs on Blogger;
• The Folsom Lake College strategic planning blog through Blogger;
• The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District think tank info bank on Google Sites;
• The Grossmont College SLO toolkit on Scribd

(Colleges outside of California are also using Web 2.0 resources. For example, a search for "SLOs" on Scribd also found several assessment documents from Malcolm X College in Chicago.)

Assessment Glossary

The Assessment Glossary page of The Follow-Up Report includes common and variant definitions of hundreds of terms prevalent in the fields of assessment, evaluation, research design, statistical analysis, and testing. The definitions were downloaded while viewing innumerable websites over several years and later consolidated for personal use into a single Word document of over 150 pages. The entire contents of the Word version has been uploaded to the website. Unfortunately, the original source documentation has been lost and were not available for citation. A PDF version of the glossary will soon be made available for downloads.

The current effort to create a basic standardized nomenclature for SLO assessment in California can be found at the CCC Network for Student Learning Outcomes Assessment website (they also have a new blog).

Writing Student Learning Outcomes

The Writing SLOs Guide page of The Follow-Up Report includes a collection of overviews, tips, guides, forms and mnemonic acronyms created by colleges across the country to help them create better Student Learning Outcome statements. A PDF version of the guide will soon be available online for individual downloads. Word versions of some of the forms which are format protected to allow for data entry only will also be made available for downloading.

Institutional Mission and Learning Outcomes

The Institutional Mission and Learning Outcomes page of The Follow-Up Report gives an overview of the college-level mission and outcomes requirements of the 2002 Accreditation Standards and the 2004 Eligibility Requirements of the ACCJC. Wherever possible it includes links to college vision, mission, values, and philosophy statements; general education philosophy statements and outcomes (goals, objectives and/or GE SLOs); and institutional-level Student Learning Outcomes (Institutional SLOs, ILOs, Core Competencies, Degree-Level Outcomes, Etc.) from the college websites and/or a recent catalog.

Sanction Letter Recommendations

The Sanction Letter Recommendations page of The Follow-Up Report summarizes the findings of a simple content analysis of ACCJC sanction (Warning, Probation, and Show Cause) letters. It shows which Standards were the most cited in the recommendations for colleges placed on a sanction and identifies the key words and phrases used in the Commission recommendations for sanctioned colleges.

Action Letters and Reports

The Action Letters and Reports page of The Follow-Up Report lists Commission actions for each college in the ACCJC region since January 2003 with links to the home and accreditation pages of the colleges. Wherever possible, it also includes links to copies of the Commission Action Letters to the college (including Warning, Probation, and Show Cause letters), college reports to the Commission (including Self-Studies, Midterm Reports, Progress Reports, Follow-Up Reports, and Show Cause Reports), and reports to the college from the Commission visitation teams.

ACCJC Actions and Accreditation Status

The Commission Actions and Status page of The Follow-Up Report gives a brief overview of ACCJC actions from January 2003 to January 2009 and charts the changing accreditation status of schools in the region. Almost half of all ACCJC colleges (61 schools) have been sanctioned (placed on Warning, Probation, or Show Cause) at least once in the past six years. It presents a three-color safety/traffic code (Red, Yellow, and Green) to classify the accreditation status of each college and uses a one-year moving average to plot the trend of colleges under sanction (which ranged from a low of 4.3% in June 2003 to a high of 19.6% in June 2008 and January 2009).

Introducing The Follow-Up Report

Welcome to The Follow-Up Report Press blog. This is the "pressroom" and publications companion site to The Follow-Up Report website created in May 2009.

The Follow-Up Report (https://sites.google.com/site/thefollowupreport/) was created by Todd V. Titterud to share information with friends and colleagues in ACCJC accredited colleges. It is a follow-up on the implementation of the 2002 Standards and the strengthened enforcement of the two-year rule. It was created as a resource to help colleagues understand current trends in Commission actions and to succeed in their own efforts to achieve continuous institutional learning and improvement.

The blog will post overviews of The Follow-Up Report (TFR) pages and updates; TFR publications; and links to and/or reviews/overviews of related websites and online publications.