Civic Literacy Student Learning Outcome Resources
A socially cohesive and economically vibrant US democracy and a viable, just global community require informed, engaged, open-minded, and socially responsible people committed to the community good and practiced in “doing” democracy.
A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (2012).
Civic Literacy is a Salt Lake Community College learning outcome and therefore, used broadly across the college. Our vision statement includes the phrase “strengthening the communities we serve through the success of our students.” One of our core values is community. Are we as an institution achieving these goals?
Most assessment of learning occurs on the course level and there are well-developed structures for this especially for the college-wide learning outcomes focused on critical thinking and information literacy. Since 2014 there has been an effort to assess General Education Student Learning Outcomes on an institutional and program level. Assessment of the Salt Lake Community College Civic Literacy Learning Outcome (CLSLO) is a part of this. The Engaged Learning Office has been driving these efforts to determine if community-engaged learning students are making gains with the college-wide civic literacy student learning outcome. A report outlining these efforts is created each year. As a part of this, resources have also been created that are helpful to faculty on a course level.
A CLSLO rubric provides language and as well as a framework for faculty providing tools to assess course-level civic learning, critical thinking surrounding social issues, and civic action. The rubric can be edited and customized for courses in a variety of disciplines. Reflection prompts also exist to help guide students with this learning. An outline of best practices for utilizing service in the curriculum can also help provide guidance.
The Engaged Learning Office can help any faculty who want to incorporate civic learning and civic action in their classroom. We also manage the Community-Engaged Learning Grant & Designation Program which is one of the primary vehicles for formally integrating civic engagement in the academic curriculum. We will continue to develop resources in the future and welcome any feedback.
Resources
Previous Final Reports
Other Reports
Workshops
Involve your students in critical social issues relevant to your discipline! This content is for faculty currently using community-engaged learning pedagogy or those generally incorporating community engagement as an experiential teaching strategy. Learn about the Civic Literacy Student Learning Outcome (CLSLO) resources at SLCC. Become familiar with SLCC’s efforts to assess this learning outcome.