Division Department Course Student Learning Outcome Academic Year Quarter Modality Method of Assessment Description of Method Number of students exceeding expectations Number of students meeting expectations Number of students approaching expectations Number of students who do not meet this outcome N/A Not Applicable (withdrew, absent, ...) Reflection Enhancement/Action
LA Communication Studies COMM 16 SLO 1 - Develop increasing communication competence in building and maintaining relationships by adapting to other people, the goals of the speaker, and the requirements of the interpersonal communication context (e.g., cultural, social, and business). 2019-2020 Fall Other Portfolio Review As we moved through the course, I had the students complete an online portfolio. In the portfolio, the students analyzed interpersonal theories, and then explained how they planned on implementing the theories in their own lives. After about 3 weeks of implementing the theories, the students would reflect on whether or not they noticed improvements in their communication competence, specifically in building and maintaining relationships by adapting to other people, the goals of the speaker, and the requirements of the interpersonal communication context. 26 26 3 2 1 26 out of 29 students stated that they saw improvement in their communication competence, specifically in building and maintaining relationships by adapting to other people, the goals of the speaker, and the requirements of the interpersonal communication context. Many of the students said that their progress was not linear, and they found themselves falling into bad habits. They also noted that they continued to push against their bad habits by applying the theories and concepts discussed in class. Two of the three students who did not see improvement said it was because they forgot their plan of action while they moved through the quarter. One student did not complete the portfolio, and therefore, did not see any improvements. In the future, it might be useful for me to assign accountability partners. This could potentially help the students check in with each other, and remind each other of what they agreed to work on during the quarter.
LA Communication Studies COMM 16 SLO 3 - Evaluate and assess the effectiveness of interpersonal communication through self-reflection and shared feedback. 2019-2020 Fall Other Other The students’ final assignment was to write an essay about an interpersonal conflict they experienced. Within the essay, the students were required to use 10 theories from the textbook in order to explain how both parties contributed to the conflict. After the students assessed how both parties contributed to the conflict, they had to say what they would do differently if they experienced the conflict again. Each student shared their essay with a classmate, and their classmate then facilitated a conversation about the ideas that came up in the essay. The facilitated conversation helped the students evaluate and assess the effectiveness of interpersonal communication through self-reflection and shared feedback. 28 28 0 1 1 The students said that the assignment helped them see the conflict from a different perspective, and helped them evaluate how they contributed to the conflict as well. There would have been a 100% success rate, but one student did not complete the assignment. In the future, I will set up conferences with students in order to provide them with more specific guidance. The one student who did not complete the assignment later mentioned to me that she was confused by the assignment. The conferences would help the students begin to conceptualize what to write, and give them more one on one instruction.
LA Communication Studies COMM 10 SLO 1 - Display increasing confidence in ability to use a range of speaking, listening, and collaboration skills. 2019-2020 Spring Online with at least some synchronous hours Presentation/Performance Team Survival Speech Small Groups of 4-6 were asked to collaborate on a team presentation that required them to teach the class 3 essential communication skills necessary for physical and mental well-being during quarantine (i.e. perception-checking, setting boundaries, self-care). 20 10 0 0 0 Based on post-analysis, every individual contributed during the presentation (speaking). Some individuals spoke up more than others during team meetings. Most students felt acknowledged during brainstorming sessions (listening). Consensus building was effective for four out of six teams (collaboration). Two teams expressed difficulty collaborating with students who had limited access to Internet or a working camera. While two-thirds of teams (four out of six) received scored 90% or better, all teams completed the project with a passing grade and showed an improvement in speaking, listening, and collaboration skills. For this reason, SLO 1 for COMM 10 (“Display increasing confidence in ability to use a range of speaking, listening, and collaboration skills”) was met for all students in class. A few students were meeting from different times zones. Not all students had reliable access to Zoom technology. In addition to Google Docs, it may help to find more effective ways for students to collaborate asynchronously in small teams
LA Communication Studies COMM 10 SLO 4 - Identify, locate, evaluate and use information technologies and information sources 2020-2021 Winter Online with at least some synchronous hours Demonstration Assessment Method: Demonstration (A). After discussing the importance of being informed, yet critical of relevant issues around us (especially in an era of misinformation), students were assigned an Information Literacy Response. To help with research and source citations, students were instructed to watch Info Lit videos Part 1: Library Resources and Part 7: Citations - MLA. Assignment Guidelines: 1.) List 5 original informative speech topics you've brainstormed or could speak on [3 points] 2.) Find 3 different credible sources that you cite MLA style (or APA if you're used to that). [6 points] 3.) For each of the 3 credible sources above, write out how you could cite the info in your speech using the Evidence 3-Step Technique (Cite the source / State the evidence / Restate evidence in your own words. [6 points] 15 Points Total 26 26 1 5 0 Assessment Data Summary: Based on a class of 32 students. Quantitative measure: 26 students received a 10 out of 15 or better (25/32 or 81% success rate). 5 students did not complete assignment and received a 0 out of 15. 1 student completed assignment and received a 9 out of 15. Qualitative measure: 23 our of 32 students cited their sources effectively in their speech (72% success rate). The challenge remains citing source in the Evidence-3-Step method. Although students can summarize their research, we need to work on analyzing and interpreting the information. Reflection and Analysis: Although an 81% quantitative success rate was achieved, nearly one-fifth of the class failed to complete the assignment or did not demonstrate an sufficient understanding of how to properly cite sources. This could be due to a variety of reasons. Teaching and practicing informational literacy, although essential to critical thinking, is one of the less engaging and dynamic parts of my course. Those who missed class that day or were new to citing sources at the college level need ongoing practice. Rather than keep on pushing for students to master this concept, it may help to take a step back and evaluate why this is such a vital skill. More important than knowing how to cite sources flawlessly, the real selling point for information literacy is for students to elevate their confidence, credibility, and audience trust. Enhancement/Action: Students learn from example, not lectures. As an instructor, I could do better in how I model information literacy in class. Citing sources in an accurate, yet meaningful and authentic manner is something I could improve on. Sharing best practices with colleagues and finding more engaging activities and videos would elevate the Information Literacy assignment. Instead of focusing on finding credible sources, it might be a fun or challenging assignment to seek out examples of misinformation. Perhaps even framing the dry term “Information Literacy” as a “Credible Speaker” or “Trusted Source” might resonate with students more.
LA Communication Studies COMM 1 SLO 4: Identify, locate, evaluate, and use information technologies and information sources. 2020-2021 Winter Online - Asynchronous Demonstration Assessment Method: An “annotated bibliography” assignment in which every student is tasked with finding & citing four sources based on an informative speech topic, and then describing the source and why it may be useful for their project. Students are required to find two academic peer reviewed sources as well as two reputable popular news sources. 12 19 7 7 Reflection and Analysis: Target was not met, Looking deeper into the evaluations of the assignments, most students did well in finding the sources and articulating their quality and usefulness, but struggled mostly in citing them. Because the three elements were weighted evenly in the assignment, scoring 12/15 would mean the student did very good in all three elements. Struggling in one (citation format) wouldn’t give a lot of flexibility in the other two and would create the likelihood of falling short of the 12/15 threshold for success Enhancement/Action: Two enhancements should be made: first, using the library tutorial videos seems to be a very effective starting point for finding sources, but is falling short in explaining the importance of citations; extra class attention and resources should be developed to explain this. Second, adjust the weighting and evaluation rubric of the assignment to match the focus of the SLO – although perfect citation format is an important element of “using” information sources (per the SLO), it is arguably far less important than finding them and utilizing them in the synthesis of information for a research based project.
LA Communication Studies COMM 70 SLO5: Identify, locate, evaluate, and use information technologies and information sources relevant to organizational communication. 2020-2021 Winter Online - Asynchronous Project A major part of the class are the two Case Study Projects. For the first, the students are divided into groups of 5-6 and asked to research, analyze and present a SWOT analysis on an organization. This project involves multiple written draft submissions needing academic research that culminates into a 4-5 minutes presentation with at least 5 oral citations. The second Case Study follows the same format and focuses on research driven ethical analysis of an organization. With two projects sharing the same framework, the progression of a student’s ability to research, assess and analyze key concepts is explicitly measured in the four written drafts and two final presentations. 22 22 0 0 0 Reflection and Analysis: While the students showed an increasing level of competence in locating and identifying sources for the Case Studies, the quality if research still leaves room for improvement. There is still some confusion about how to correctly cite a source in APA and MLA format and oral citations lack complete addressal. A distinction is ability is seen in students who have taken the advisory COMM01 class where these skills are taught in greater detail with more opportunity for practice as compared to students who have not taken COMM01 prior to enrolling in this class. The peer evaluation done after the presentations indicate that students are aware of what makes a credible source and its importance in academic research and analysis. 1. Create ancillary resources to help support gaps in knowledge and ability to effectively research and evaluate sources.

2. Create exercises/resources to help students understand and implement correct APA/MLA citation format in written work and oral presentations.

3. Dedicate class time to review of these resources and skills at least twice in the quarter. After the results of Winter 21, a speech resources section was added to the class Canvas shell dedicated to research, APA/MLA format and oral citations.
LA Communication Studies COMM 9  SLO 4: Find, evaluate and cite sources in writing and presentations using appropriate documentation format. 2020-2021 Winter Online - Asynchronous Other Assessment Method: N: Other – Essay #3: Issue Analysis. 5 10 10 5 Reflection and Analysis: Students seem to have no trouble doing the actual research and finding sources. Many of the challenges with formatting the sources come from students being more accustomed to MLA rather than APA, and is easily fixed. The deeper issues of analysis are often resolved when students are allowed to revise the essay and receive feedback. Students report that it is due to issues of overcomplicating the assignment criteria, or not being confident in their analysis abilities. Enhancement/Action: Sample, successful examples of this essay have already been posted. However, moving forward, annotating these essays and explaining exactly how they met the criteria may increase success. Numerous assignments (writing exercises; discussions) scaffold the actual essay, so when students go back and review those assignments, their revisions are often much improved.
LA Communication Studies COMM 8 SLO 3: Identify, evaluate and use information technologies and sources in writing and presentations using proper attribution and citation. 2020-2021 Winter Online - Asynchronous Presentation/Performance Assessment Method: The final assignment for this class is a policy debate. Students select a policy proposition and then need to research both sides of the issue, and prepare cases for both sides. To help prepare, students also need to write an annotated bibliography with at least 5 credible sources. Students are expected to cite sources correctly using an established academic format during both the 6 minute presentation part of the debate and the preparation outline. 10 20 12 10 The good news: Students were able to do good research and find credible information, and as a result the debates were well informed and featured mostly sound argumentation. The bad news: Only a bit over half of the students correctly cited sources orally when presenting, and about a third correctly cited sources in the preparation outline. Assuming students already know how to do citations, especially in the written outline, will need to be replaced with more detailed instructions on the basics of source citing. Additional resources on source citing will be provided through Canvas, including written explanation and video instructions.
LA Communication Studies COMM 15 SLO 4 - Develop, present, and critically evaluate informative and persuasive group presentations that are personalized to the audience, organized with an effective plan and purpose, and use information 2020-2021 Winter Online - Asynchronous Presentation/Performance The students work in groups of 5 to create a speech that calls attention to fallacies found in memes. They group first finds a meme where a fallacy is present. They then construct a speech outline and present a speech about the fallacy within the meme. Within the speech, the students first call attention to the observable fallacies within a specific meme. From there, they explain how the fallacy within the meme impacts their audience. From there, they create and share a new meme without a fallacy. After that, they describe how the world would be different if people did not share the meme. Finally, they tell the audience how to stop the spread of misinformation and take action against the topic of their meme. The students are required to include at least 8 credible in-text, verbal, and reference citations to support their claims. 14 9 0 0 This was my first quarter using this assignment. The students did an awesome job writing and delivering the speeches. They also did a great job finding credible sources and citing them. The main problem with the assignment was that some groups chose memes that did not specifically address socially significant topics. Although the students fulfilled the requirements of the assignment, the speeches themselves would have been more purposeful if they chose topics that held more weight.  I plan on providing more example memes for students to understand what sort of memes are useful for this assignment. I also need to specify in the assignment description that students need to choose socially significant topics. 
Journalism JOUR 21B Appraise and critique feature stories for originality, sourcing and writing style. 2020-2021 Spring Online - Asynchronous Tracked Academic Behavior In an assignment, students evaluated five feature stories, and commented on the writing, sourcing and effectiveness of each.  18 6 1 1 2 This assessment took place late in the quarter, and showed that students had learned how to evaluate originality, sourcing and writing style in published feature stories.  This is an effective assessment, but should be updated often with new sample feature stories reflecting changes in media reporting and sourcing.
Journalism JOUR 80 Demonstrate knowledge of the history, role and function of public relations in today's society and global economy. 2020-2021 Spring Online - Asynchronous Project Students were asked to create and present a PR plan for a client of their choosing (real or fictional) as a final project. Each student was assessed on the main components of their plan (research, planning, implementation and evaluation) and how well they were able to apply their accumulated knowledge, gained throughout the quarter, about the PR profession and the role and function of PR in society. Students are also assessed on identifying specific target markets and choosing appropriate strategic communication tools to reach the target audience(s). 
12 4 1 5 I am pleased that a majority of students did well with this assessment since it not only measures how well students learned this specific SLO, but it also measures how much they learned and retained throughout the quarter. This final project of creating and presenting a PR plan will continue to be a good assessment for this SLO.
 he one component of the SLO this project does not address is the history of the PR profession. In order to be able to assess this part of the SLO in the future, I plan to have students do research on the history of PR and then take a quiz/survey to assess what they’ve learned.
Journalism JOUR 80 Compare ethical and legal case studies and distinguish which of the chosen methods for handling the issues are best aligned with the Public Relations Society of America member code of ethics and media law. 2020-2021 Spring Online - Asynchronous Other This assignment was to do a deep dive into a real-life PR case study. Students were asked to read about an incident involving a PR professional and determine whether his actions were ethical or not. Students required to support their arguments by using the Public Relations Society of America’s Professional Code of Ethics and cite where the violations occurred
 13 3 2 4 I am satisfied with the effectiveness of this assessment and plan to continue to implement it in future quarters.  The enhancement/action will be to research and select a different real-life case occurring at the time of the assessment. 
Journalism JOUR 80 Research and design a public relations strategy for a specific entity and create a press release (using Associated Press style, summary lead and quote attribution) and associated media strategy, based on a stated goal and means of evaluating outcomes. 2020-2021 Spring Online - Asynchronous Other For this assignment, students were asked to create a fictional public event to celebrate an organization’s 25th anniversary. Once they figured out the PR/promotional (newsworthy) hooks, they were tasked with writing a press release (using AP Style) to generate news coverage and awareness about the event.
 15 2 2 3 I think students generally did well with this assignment and seemed to understand the inverted pyramid structure. One of the biggest challenges students had with this assignment was using AP Style. For students to truly understand AP Style and how to use it, it would take (at minimum) a two-week focus. The challenge is a majority of the students who take the class are not journalism students or even students who are going into PR, so it would be a skill set that wouldn’t necessarily justify replacing other parts of the course/curriculum focus.
My recommendation is to re-evaluate the course outline for JOUR 80 and consider either updating this SLO and/or adjusting the curriculum.
LA Journalism JOUR 21B Appraise and critique feature stories for originality, sourcing and writing style. 2020-2021 Spring Online - Asynchronous Tracked Academic Behavior In an assignment, students evaluated five feature stories, and commented on the writing, sourcing and effectiveness of each.  18 6 1 1 2 This assessment took place late in the quarter, and showed that students had learned how to evaluate originality, sourcing and writing style in published feature stories.  This is an effective assessment, but should be updated often with new sample feature stories reflecting changes in media reporting and sourcing.
LA Journalism JOUR 80 Demonstrate knowledge of the history, role and function of public relations in today's society and global economy. 2020-2021 Spring Online - Asynchronous Project Students were asked to create and present a PR plan for a client of their choosing (real or fictional) as a final project. Each student was assessed on the main components of their plan (research, planning, implementation and evaluation) and how well they were able to apply their accumulated knowledge, gained throughout the quarter, about the PR profession and the role and function of PR in society. Students are also assessed on identifying specific target markets and choosing appropriate strategic communication tools to reach the target audience(s). 
12 4 1 5 I am pleased that a majority of students did well with this assessment since it not only measures how well students learned this specific SLO, but it also measures how much they learned and retained throughout the quarter. This final project of creating and presenting a PR plan will continue to be a good assessment for this SLO.
 he one component of the SLO this project does not address is the history of the PR profession. In order to be able to assess this part of the SLO in the future, I plan to have students do research on the history of PR and then take a quiz/survey to assess what they’ve learned.
LA Journalism JOUR 80 Compare ethical and legal case studies and distinguish which of the chosen methods for handling the issues are best aligned with the Public Relations Society of America member code of ethics and media law. 2020-2021 Spring Online - Asynchronous Other This assignment was to do a deep dive into a real-life PR case study. Students were asked to read about an incident involving a PR professional and determine whether his actions were ethical or not. Students required to support their arguments by using the Public Relations Society of America’s Professional Code of Ethics and cite where the violations occurred
 13 3 2 4 I am satisfied with the effectiveness of this assessment and plan to continue to implement it in future quarters.  The enhancement/action will be to research and select a different real-life case occurring at the time of the assessment. 
LA Journalism JOUR 80 Research and design a public relations strategy for a specific entity and create a press release (using Associated Press style, summary lead and quote attribution) and associated media strategy, based on a stated goal and means of evaluating outcomes. 2020-2021 Spring Online - Asynchronous Other For this assignment, students were asked to create a fictional public event to celebrate an organization’s 25th anniversary. Once they figured out the PR/promotional (newsworthy) hooks, they were tasked with writing a press release (using AP Style) to generate news coverage and awareness about the event.
 15 2 2 3 I think students generally did well with this assignment and seemed to understand the inverted pyramid structure. One of the biggest challenges students had with this assignment was using AP Style. For students to truly understand AP Style and how to use it, it would take (at minimum) a two-week focus. The challenge is a majority of the students who take the class are not journalism students or even students who are going into PR, so it would be a skill set that wouldn’t necessarily justify replacing other parts of the course/curriculum focus.
My recommendation is to re-evaluate the course outline for JOUR 80 and consider either updating this SLO and/or adjusting the curriculum.