Core Learning-Outcomes and Assessment
Starting in the 2022–23 academic year, the College assesses eight Core Learning-Outcomes (see below). These components are introduced in a set of Core courses and continued in students' major areas of study.
Full-time professors who teach Core courses or capstone courses may be selected to submit course artifacts for assessment by the Core Development Committee.
If your section is selected, please download the corresponding rubric and (see below); enter each of your students onto a row in Column A of the spreadsheet you receive a link to in your email; and, based on a major assignment in your section, evaluate each student for whether the assignment demonstrates that the student displays achievement of that core outcome.
Completed spreadsheets are due on the grading deadline for the semester in question.
If you are teaching a course that is intended to achieve a Core Learning-Outcome (please see curriculum map below), if a rubric is available for that outcome, then please associate that rubric in Canvas with at least one of your assignments in that semester, and "grade" that assignment based on that Core rubric. For instructions about how to do so, please click here.
Core Learning-Outcomes
CLO1: Critical thinking: Students will be able to assess the quality of reasoning they encounter, construct their own well-reasoned arguments, and formulate defensible conclusions.
CLO2: Reading: Through interactive engagement with written texts in a variety of media, students will be able to extract information and ideas, discern and follow arguments, and construct meaning.
CLO3: Effective communication: Students will be able to communicate effectively in both writing and speech that demonstrates an awareness of audience and purpose and sound judgment in the selection, evaluation, and use of evidence.
CLO4: Quantitative literacy: Students will be able to reason and solve quantitative problems arising in everyday situations, understand and create sophisticated arguments supported by quantitative evidence, and clearly communicate those arguments in a variety of formats.
CLO5: Moral development: Students will be able to critically evaluate their pre-existing beliefs about moral action and the good life, recognize and assess alternative systems of belief, and persuasively defend their convictions.
CLO6: Social awareness through cultural diversity: Students will be able to identify the challenges faced by others in socio-cultural settings different from their own, evaluate proposed solutions, and promote justice-oriented outcomes.
CLO7: Understanding human nature: Students will be able to use the methods of the natural and social sciences, arts and literature, philosophy, and theology to identify and evaluate different perspectives on human nature and its relationship to the natural and social world.
CLO8: Integration of knowledge: Students will be able to synthesize knowledge and methods from across the disciplines to address complex problems.
Curriculum Map
The following curriculum map associates SHC courses with the eight Core Learning-Outcomes. This map was approved in Fall 2022, with input from divisions, by the Assessment Team and the Core Development Committee.
Rubrics
Rubrics
As CDC develops rubrics, they will be posted and linked here.
Assessment Schedule
Two outcomes are assessed every semester. Here is the upcoming schedule:
Fall 2022: CLO1 and CLO2
Spring 2023: CLO3 and CLO4
Fall 2023: CLO5 and CLO6
Spring 2024: CLO7 and CLO8.
General Procedure
Even-numbered years
Fall: CLO1 and CLO2
Spring: CLO7 and CLO8
Odd-numbered years
Fall: CLO5 and CLO6
Spring: CLO3 and CLO4
Adding Core Outcomes to Canvas Shells
Instructors who teach Core courses may add Core outcomes to their Canvas shells by using the following steps.
Go to Canvas at https://springhill.instructure.com.
Find the relevant course shell under Dashboard or Courses on the left menu and open it.
Now, within the shell, on the left menu, find Outcomes and open it.
Now select Find on the upper right.
On the left, expand the Account Standards menu, then the Spring Hill College submenu, then the Core 2022 submenu.
Now inspect the eight Core outcomes and click "Add" for the outcomes that are taught in your course.
On the lower right, click "Done."
Repeat for any other shell for a Core course that you're teaching.