Shoreline Student Learning Outcomes
Shoreline Student Learning Outcomes (SSLOs) represent the general skills and knowledge all Shoreline degree completers need to be successful. The outcomes versions are intended to capture the differences in what students learn, depending on the program they complete.
The SSLOs presented below represent the culmination of a three-year, data-informed revision process that engaged the entire Shoreline campus community, including students, advisory committees, faculty, staff, and administrators. The revision began in Fall of 2020, and the outcomes were approved in Spring of 2023.
Shoreline assesses students' attainment of SSLOs on an annual basis (two per year), with each outcome assessed on a three-year cycle.
Communication refers to written, spoken and sign language, nonverbal cues, and listening skills. Each degree program includes one version from each of the two categories described below.
Students will express their ideas in written forms in a variety of contexts, considering various audiences, diverse perspectives, and cultural differences.
Version 1: Create written content that communicates information and findings while considering multiple perspectives, culturally diverse audiences, and contexts.
Examples: Students may write health records and clinical documentation, analysis and diagnosis of automotive concerns, digital productions for multimedia development, etc.
Version 2: Create written content for various purposes while considering multiple perspectives, culturally diverse audiences, and contexts.
Examples: Students may write argumentative essays, summaries/reports/syntheses, self-reflection and meta-cognition essays, analysis (comparison/contrast, cause/effect), or engage in collaborative discussions, posts, pieces of writing.
Communicate intentionally with clarity and creativity, actively seek to understand and engage ethically, and/or collaborate with others, while considering multiple perspectives, culturally diverse audiences, and contexts.
Version 1: Communicate intentionally and seek to understand others while considering multiple perspectives, culturally diverse audiences, and contexts.
Examples: Students present or share ideas, opinions, arguments, research, art, or music; diagnose, problem-solve, assess, create, support, empathize, give and receive feedback, build interpersonal relationships, listen to understand, inform, persuade, or teach others.
Version 2: Communicate intentionally and seek to understand others in order to collaborate in a group to achieve a specific purpose, while considering multiple perspectives, culturally diverse audiences, and contexts.
Examples: Students do group work to problem-solve together, create together, develop skills to manage conflict, explore leadership and small group roles, perform in groups, and give and receive feedback in groups.
Thinking critically can mean many things. Depending on the field they pursue, students will develop skills in building from evidence and multiple perspectives to draw a conclusion (Evaluation) and/or using questions to dig deep into concepts, ideas, and/or problems (Inquiry).
Version 1: Evaluate evidence from different viewpoints using proven methods in a particular field or discipline to draw justifiable conclusions.
Examples: In the realm of science, the “viewpoint” could be different theories, and
the proven method is traditional hypothesis testing (scientific method) to support
one theory over another.
In philosophy, the viewpoints would be different arguments, and the proven methods
would be reasoning and logic, to identify the most reasonable conclusion.
In art appreciation, the different viewpoints may be different interpretations of
the same piece of art, with evidence from the piece itself to draw a conclusion about
the meaning of the piece.
Version 2: Apply proven methods of analysis from a particular field or discipline to examine a problem, concept, or argument.
Examples: In a field such as automotive, inquiry may allow students to investigate,
“Why did a particular fix not work?” or “What possible reasons might explain why this
component is not functional?”
In a discipline such as history, this could mean investigating the question “Why did
a particular event happen when it did and the way it did?”
In literature, this could mean exploring the question “Why did the author choose to
switch narrative voice throughout the novel?”
Equity and social justice education is transformative and empowers learners to become more skilled, active, and socially and politically aware. As such, to advance equity, social justice, and anti-racism, students will analyze the role of, and ways to reduce, interpersonal and institutional oppression in the United States.
Version 1: Analyze the impact of racial oppression in a given contemporary social problem in the United States.
Examples: Students may analyze the continual impacts of redlining and racial covenants on the city of Shoreline or students may analyze how implicit bias contributes to the School to Prison Pipeline and impacts the outcomes of students of color.
Version 2: Identify ways to reduce racial oppression in a given contemporary social problem in the United States.
Examples: Students may engage in role-playing activities to practice disrupting instances of interpersonal oppression experienced by members of the class, or through Service-Learning, students will engage with community partners on social justice and equity programs within the community.
Information literate people will demonstrate an awareness of how they gather, use, manage, synthesize and create information and data in an ethical manner and will have the information skills to do so effectively.
Version 1: Students will locate, retrieve, and analyze or evaluate sources to fulfill
an information need.
Locate:
- Recognize a gap in one’s knowledge
- Use the resources (tools/materials that provide data/information) available to fill that gap
Retrieve:
- Access and extract information from a source(s) to gain knowledge about a topic
Analyze:
- Use information to relate new knowledge to their information need and prior knowledge (information they already know)
Evaluate:
- Assess information for quality, accuracy, relevancy, bias, authority, and credibility
- Identify the value of and differences between resources in a variety of formats (e.g., multimedia, database, website, audio/visual, book).
Students will apply quantitative and/or symbolic strategies to interpret information and draw conclusions.
Version 1: Apply statistical methods to draw evidence-based conclusions.
Example: Students analyze data to draw conclusions about a population using information collected from a sample, such as is done with the public opinion polls, clinical trials, or environmental studies, and summarize the results. (Relevant course: MATH& 146)
Version 2: Apply a combination of mathematical techniques from the disciplines of algebra, trigonometry, and calculus to analyze information and draw conclusions.
Example: Students represent situations and solve related equations that involve multiple layers of functions, reasoning, and algebraic manipulation. (Relevant courses: MATH& 141, MATH& 142, MATH& 151)
Version 3: Apply algebraic techniques or symbolic logic to draw conclusions.
Example: Students solve real-life problems by translating them into either mathematical or symbolic components. (Relevant courses: Any math course 100-level or higher or PHIL& 120)
Version 4: Use mathematical calculations to investigate situations applicable to a specific program or discipline and draw conclusions.
Examples: In an acoustics of music class, students might describe the acoustic properties of a room using formulas, functions and graphs where appropriate. (Relevant course: MUSTC 106)
In a health informatics class, students might perform calculations necessary for submitting insurance claims. (Relevant course: HIIM 154)
In an Excel 365 class, students might use mathematical formulas and logical statements to analyze information in a spreadsheet and create graphs. (Relevant course: BUS 150)