Welcome to Columbus State Community College Student Success webpage, an Ohio Community College Portrait initiated by the Ohio Board of Regents to feature our college and Learner Success.

This page focuses on information about Columbus State that includes Career & Technical Program learning outcomes, Arts & Sciences degree options, the process of assessment for student achievement of those outcomes in General Education and in Undergraduate Programs and Majors.

You'll also find other continuous improvement initiatives such as the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) regional accreditation http://www.cscc.edu/aqip and Innovation and Inquiry for Student Learning (IISL) http://iisl.alverno.edu consortium, a collaboration with more than 40 two-year colleges and technical colleges across the United States.

Columbus State Community College is all about helping students learn. We’re committed more than ever to creating learning-centered environments where faculty, administrators, and staff work actively to help students learn. Using methods of Assessment FOR Student Learning is our way of assuring that learning is occurring and improving. We’ve learned that “one size does not fit all. ” However, the improvements that do result from learning outcomes assessment and assessment of processes make the challenge of finding answers to that significant question of “How do we know our students have learned” worthwhile.

We are discovering that unlike evaluation which looks at mastery of outcomes and process, assessment FOR learning looks at the process of learning or failing to learn. We ask the question, “If learning has not been achieved, what factors or behaviors have interfered with the learning process, and what can we do about it?”

ASSESSMENT FOR STUDENT LEARNING provides a framework for continuous improvement of student learning and a commitment to program excellence. Our process provides evidence that

• learning outcomes are observable and are performed by the student;
• curriculum alignment provides the opportunity for students to achieve these outcomes because the curriculum is driven by intended learning outcomes and assessment evidence;
• learning opportunities are consistent and contribute to student learning;
• successful program completion provides students with the requisite skills and abilities described in the general education goals and are clear enough to be understood by our stakeholders; and
• faculty teaching these courses provide students with multiple integrated learning opportunities to assure that students will be able to do outside the classroom (in context) with what they have learned through their learning experiences.

View the Columbus State Community College Portrait