By Larry Harris, Contributor

At San Jose City College, each course has a set of expectations, called Student Learning Outcomes, of what the student should have learned after completing the course.

“SLOs are  developed by faculty who teach the course; SLOs for transfer courses are developed by common agreements between schools,” Dean of Language Arts Keiko Kimura said.

These expectations are spelled out in the green syllabus and are usually
discussed in the first sessions of class.

Celia Cruz-Johnson, co-chair of San Jose City College’s Accreditation and Student Learning Outcomes committee said, “It is important for students to know and understand the course objective.

The SLO provides two goals: The SLO sets out the course expectations, and it allows  the student a feedback loop to measure himself against an expected standard.”

The student is not expected to meet these course expectations or objectives at the beginning of the course, but he or she should have learned sufficient material to meet these expectations at the end of the course.

In addition to student learning outcomes, the program major and the overall institution has success expectations they must meet. The overall curriculum program in which the student is majoring in has Program Student Learning Outcomes.

The highest level of Accreditation Outcomes expectation is that of the Institutional Student Learning Outcomes. This is a measurement of the institution’s overall effectiveness in developing students who are able to communicate effectively, exercise critical and analytical thinking skills and demonstrate an awareness of global and social justice issues.

If the student is not sure of a course’s SLOs, he or she should speak with the instructor.