At Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC), assessment of student learning occurs across three interconnected levels, reflecting both local instructional priorities and the broader curriculum structure established by the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD):
Course-Level Learning Outcomes (Course Competencies)#
Course-Level Learning Outcomes—commonly referred to as CLOs, and officially called Course Competencies in the Maricopa Community College District (MCCCD)—define the essential knowledge and skills students are expected to master in each course. These outcomes are developed and approved by districtwide Instructional Councils (ICs) and are standardized across all MCCCD colleges. They serve as the foundation for classroom-level assessment and support CGCC’s commitment to high-quality instruction and continuous improvement.
Current assessment efforts are focused on mapping these CLOs to Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) to provide a more comprehensive view of how student learning progresses across CGCC. Faculty can locate official MCCCD CLOs using the Course Search tool provided by the Center for Curriculum Transfer and Articulation (CCTA).
Institutional Learning Outcomes: General Education Student Learning Outcomes (GESLOs)#
Developed locally at CGCC, these institutional-level outcomes articulate the transferable skills and habits of mind expected of all students earning degrees and certificates. Faculty assess these outcomes regularly across disciplines and modalities, in alignment with college-wide priorities.
Development of the GESLOs#
The development of CGCC’s General Education Student Learning Outcomes (GESLOs) was rooted in broad faculty collaboration, aligned with national best practices, and informed by CGCC’s mission to empower students through learning and community engagement. The process also responded to institutional goals for continuous improvement and accountability, including compliance with the Higher Learning Commission’s Criterion 4: Evidence of student learning and teaching effectiveness.
The GESLOs articulate the core transferable skills expected of all graduates and reflect CGCC’s values of equity, innovation, and student success. These outcomes are designed to ensure both disciplinary integrity and cross-disciplinary alignment, supporting transparency, improvement, and institutional effectiveness.
CGCC has identified four General Education Student Learning Outcomes:
- Critical Thinking: The process of analyzing, evaluating, applying, and synthesizing information, characterized by reflection, connection of ideas, and reasoned judgment.
- Communication: The purposeful development, expression, and reception of a message through oral and nonverbal means
- Literacy: The integrated abilities to locate, evaluate, and ethically use information in the creation of new knowledge and participation in learning communities.
- Personal Development: Lifelong learning behaviors that promote student success and informed decision-making, while contributing to equity and community engagement.
Each GESLO is supported by a set of measurable indicators that guide assessment and ensure consistency across courses and disciplines.
GESLO Indicators#
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Critical thinking is the process of appropriately analyzing, evaluating, applying and synthesizing information. It is characterized by reflection, connection of new information to existing knowledge and reasoned judgment.
Indicators#
- CT.1: Application
- Students can apply knowledge and skills in a different context or situation or task.
- CT.2: Analysis
- Students can organize information into its component parts.
- Students can identify relationships within information and its component parts.
- CT.3: Synthesis
- Students can assemble parts or components to create a whole.
- Students can originate through the use of parts or components.
- CT.4: Evaluation
- Students can assess the relative value of ideas and information.
- Students can justify their conclusions.
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Effective communication is the purposeful development, expression, and reception of a message through oral and nonverbal means.
Indicators#
- CO.1: Message Delivery
- Adapt the delivery of the message in context.
- How thorough and with what completion have students adapted the delivery of the message in context?
- Adapt the delivery of the message in context.
- CO.2: Audience Analysis
- Adapt the message for an audience.
- How effectively have students adapted the message for an audience?
- CO.3 Message Purpose
- Adapt the message to meet the purpose(s)
- How effectively and consistently have students adapted the message to meet the purpose(s)?
- CO.4: Verbal Interaction
- Adapt effective language in the conveyance of ideas and information.
- How effectively and with what quality have students adapted language in the conveyance of ideas and information?
- CO.5: Non-Verbal Interaction
- Utilize Paralanguage (tone, rate, volume, inflection, etc.).
- Utilize Kinesics (facial expression, gestures, and overall movement).
- How well can students apply Paralanguange and Kinesics?
- CO.6: Presentation Graphics Support
- Apply graphics to support presentation.
- How effectively do students apply graphics support to the presentation?
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Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.
Indicators#
- Inquiry Process
- IL.1.A: Adapt the delivery of the message in context.
- IL.1.B: How thorough and with what completion have students adapted the delivery of the message in context?
- IL.1.C: Formulate questions for research based on gaps or on reexamination of conflicting information.
- IL.1.D: Determine an appropriate sco