Assessment

Guiding Principles for Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes

Institutional-Level Student Learning Outcomes

Program Level Student Learning Outcomes

Kishwaukee College  improves lives by providing equitable, student-centered education and measures the success in providing those opportunities. To that end, the College endeavors to develop student outcome measures that are in line with the following basic principles:

• We affirm the importance of developing student learning outcomes that are derived from our mission statement: Kishwaukee College improves lives by providing equitable, student-centered education.
• We maintain that the outcomes developed should be applicable to all of the different constituencies of learners we serve, including those in transfer programs, career technology programs, adult education programs, developmental courses, and continuing education.
• We believe in the importance of measuring outcomes in both curricular programs and co-curricular programs and services such as athletics and student organizations.
• We affirm the importance of measuring outcomes at all levels (college level, program level, course level) and recognize that different measuring instruments may be appropriate at different levels.
• We maintain that the importance of outcomes measures is to be found in their invaluable role in the continuous improvement of the educational opportunities we offer at all levels.
• We believe that developing, measuring, and using student learning outcomes is a dynamic process, one that should be a regular part of what we do both in planning and delivering educational opportunities and demonstrating our accountability to our learners, our community, and our accreditors.

Institutional-Level Student Learning Outcomes

Kishwaukee College is “improving lives by providing  equitable, student-centered education” for all learners who pass through our doors. To that end, we aim to enhance learners’ lives by guiding them in the development of a set of four core competences that will enable them to fulfill their educational goals.

• Critical competence: Learners will be able to understand, apply, and analyze concepts. Learners will develop the ability to organize their thinking about concepts according to the dictates of sound reasoning, as appropriate. Learners will demonstrate the capacity to formulate appropriate conclusions based on their reasoning.
• Creative competence: Learners will exhibit the ability to recognize connections and transfer concepts between areas, as appropriate. Learners will demonstrate the ability to synthesize concepts and ideas. Learners will use innovative thinking and explore multiple perspectives in formulating solutions to problems encountered in different aspects of their experience.
• Communicative competence: Learners will be able to formulate a central message and share it with others. Learners will demonstrate the ability to support that central message and present their discourse according to sound organizational principles. Learners will exhibit an appropriate command of the elements necessary for communicating that central message to others.
• Cultural competence: Learners will recognize the various factors that shape individual and group identity, with an emphasis on the various components of culture. Learners will demonstrate the capacity to engage difference in various social settings.

Individual programs and courses will assess students using a variety of measures. Some include interviews, capstone experiences, course embedded measures, performance demonstrations, and portfolios.

Click on Co-Curricular Assessment Visualization   to view the nesting of the Instilutional and Co-curricular Student Learning Outcomes in a graphic format.