How do SLOs differ from the “Expected Outcomes” listed on our course outlines?
When drafting Title V compliant course outlines, you are asked to list “Expected Outcomes,” which can be thought of as the main topics that will be addressed by the course. This list must be exhaustive enough to meet the requirements of equivalent classes at UC and CSU so that our course will articulate. This can be thought of as the “microcontent” of the class: the specifics of what faculty are expected to cover when teaching a particular course. SLOs operate at the “macro” level, in that they ask you to address the bigger picture. They shift the emphasis from the specifics of what is being taught to the generality of what has actually been learned. For example, if you are teaching your daughter to put on her seatbelt, adjust her mirrors, start the car, put on her turn signal, turn her head to look behind her and then pull out of the parking spot, then she is learning to drive. From Skyline College: “The key difference between objectives and outcomes is the shift in focus from what we
