Program Goals and Student Learning Outcomes are easily differentiated. Student Learning Outcomes describe student learning – what students will know and be able to do as a result of completing a UF program. This resource provides detailed information about how to develop effective Student Learning Outcomes. You can find the current SLOs for your degree program at https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/Pages/academic-learning-compacts.aspx.
Program Goals do not describe student learning – instead, they describe programmatic elements. The August 2011 President’s Report on Doctoral Programs (Dunn, et al., 2011) presents this list of program assessment criteria, which serve as a good source of Program Goals for both undergraduate and graduate programs. These are:
- Total number of students enrolled
- Percent minority students
- Percent admits from those who applied
- Percent matriculated from those admitted
- Median time to degree
- Percent attrition rate
- Percent completion rate
- Number of graduates
- Number of graduates produced per budgeted faculty position
Program faculty should determine a group of program goals, prioritize those goals, and focus on all of them or, if it makes more sense, a subset of those goals.