Reporting
Recording how evidence was used to inform decision-making processes.

Many individuals are asking "how do I report the data?"  Ideally, the college would report on simple templates. At this time, MJC does not yet have reporting templates in place. The design of the templates will be determined when the college makes a determination about what process(es) will utilize evidence of student learning to inform their activities. When the college designs reporting templates, it should keep focus on how the report will be utilized.

• To reveal direct evidence of student learning (proof of skills, knowledge, behaviors and attitudes) to our institution and community

• To inform decision-making processes like planning and resource-allocation

• To reveal how the evaluation of qualitative and quantitative data from student learning has directly informed and/or validated improvements at various institutional levels; e.g course, point-of-service, program, degree/certificate

Did you know?

Human Performance Technology, a subfield of the discipline of instructional design, is dedicated to investigating organizational effectiveness in part through self-evaluation of outcomes. However, the premise of HPT is that you cannot accurately evaluate the effectiveness of an instructional program or an organization's productivity unless you also evaluate its resources, organizational structure, and all elements that support it. Could the HPT model be a framework for higher education as it ventures into systematic organizational self-evaluation?

While WASC/ACCJC has not been prescriptive about what it wishes to see in our reports, they have provided a conceptual framework of how evidence of learning can be applied to an existing critical process - program review. 

Accreditation Standard II.A.2 states that program review should provide "an ongoing systematic review of [program] relevance, appropriateness, achievement of student learning outcomes, currency, and future needs and plans." 

While there are many program review models and reporting templates, they vary in depth of inquiry into student learning. The learning-centered program review report would fully illustrate the review process by; stating program goals or objectives, recording actual evidence or outcomes of learning in comparison to those goals, revealing the analysis of the outcomes, and mapping improvements and resources in response to those outcomes. To make it most accessible, the reporting of this process should be prepared in a concise, cohesive, and clear manner that would be understandable to the lay person.

If program review reporting focuses on inquiry into and evaluations of learning outcomes, it will be well on its way to using outcomes to directly improve student learning.

The content of this page is provided by the MJC Student Learning Outcomes Committee
For questions regarding the content of this page contact Letitia Senechal, MJC SLO Facilitator.