• Improved facilities and access to technology (e.g., more functional classrooms, equipment for teaching, lobby TV monitor, and Welcome Center computers for student use). • More collaboration within and across departments, programs, divisions, and other units of the college. • More proactive outreach, recruitment, and assessment, with clearer communication about options, opportunities, and steps required to persist and succeed. • Development of more learning communities, which engage students and sustain student engagement in the learning process (e.g., African American Learning Community, ESL for Culinary Arts, Carpinteria Fina Wood Technology). • Greater use of the reflective inquiry process among faculty. • Greater knowledge of the importance of ongoing learning (professional development) among professionals to ensure student learning. • Increase in collaboration among English, ESL, math, and traditional career technical and transfer-oriented faculty in order to integrate sound practices across the curriculum to improve students’ fundamental knowledge and skills. Furthermore, the dialogue has led to greater understanding of the meaning of data and research used in evaluating student learning. It has encouraged some growing networks of faculty to commit to using the dialogue in more organized ways. For example, ESL faculty has formalized the reflective inquiry (RI) concept by developing their own RI group. They developed a highly successful off-campus conference and retreat to strengthen the foundation for reflective inquiry at the college. They intend to use particular class-related data and research systematically to improve student learning. Another example is the November 2008 session, where at the first of several comprehensive SLO/assessment planning retreats, the faculty was introduced to the web-based tool www.TaskStream.com, which is being used
to facilitate the collection and analysis of student learning data. As a result of the survey data collected, the college has expanded its use of the innovative computer-based instructional support tool, Kurzweil, in its Universal Learning Project. Using institutional data, Laney developed a collegewide Basic Skills Initiative Report, thus becoming clearer about the centrality of student-learning data. Also, the Basic Skills Initiative group developed plans for collecting and analyzing specific student learning data. The Laney College Student Equity Plan makes clear how the college will improve access, equity, and success in part through the use of the substantive student outcome data. CurricUNET, another software program, will allow Laney to systematize and manage curricula of the college in ways that will help strengthen the college’s instructional capacity. The adoption of both TaskStream and CurricUNET was the outcome of faculty’s increased awareness of the importance of collecting and managing student success and learning outcomes data as well as supporting an analysis of the fit between course offerings and community needs. The active participation of college constituents in the accreditation self study process, itself, has further raised the college’s estimation of and demand for learning-related data and ongoing research at the classroom, program, and institutional levels. Looking Ahead Laney plans to deepen the dialogue on student learning through regular and recurring college-wide meetings during professional development days to discuss: •
Assessment results for general education outcomes, program outcomes, and course SLOs.
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Implications for student learning.
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Possible changes and improvements to instructional practices.
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Academic standards.
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Improvement of institutional processes.
In order to support the assessment work of
Laney College
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