The Relationship between cumulative credits and student learning outcomes: A cross-sectional assessment

Abstract

This article relates the efforts of faculty at one community college to define standards for achievement of two SLOs (critical thinking and effective communication) and to gather and analyze evidence of how well students meet those standards. Faculty from 13 disciplines assessed writing samples from 264 students. We found that, in general, students with more credits outperformed those with fewer credits. However, many students at every level demonstrated poor information literacy skills, indicating an area for curriculum improvement.