Friday SLO Talks

Friday SLO Talks bring together educators, administrators, and higher education professionals who believe that learning is about more than meeting accreditation requirements. Each week, the conversation goes beyond conventional markers like course completion and diploma attainment to what really matters: skill development and competency mastery.

Sessions offer practical insights into the assessment of student learning outcomes, with real examples from campuses across the country. Whether you are a professor, a program coordinator, or an institutional leader, you will leave with actionable ideas for your own context.

Fall 2026 Lineup

Here is the Fall 2026 lineup of Friday SLO Talks. All sessions take place on Fridays, 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, via Zoom, and are free of charge. Please register separately for each session you plan to attend, using the link next to its date.

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The Accountability Paradox: Using Constraints to Create Conditions for Innovation

Friday, September 25, 2026 | Register for this session
Cindy Cogswell, Ph.D., New York University

Higher education leaders are increasingly asked to innovate while working within accreditation, compliance, strategic plans, assessment reporting, and rising expectations for evidence of impact. This session asks what happens when accountability is treated as a system to leverage rather than a constraint on meaningful change. Drawing on examples from her own work, Dr. Cogswell will share practical leadership strategies for using existing institutional structures to create space for innovation.

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Starting with Strengths: An Appreciative Approach to Assessment

Friday, October 2, 2026 | Register for this session
Crystal Kiekel, Ed.D., Los Angeles Pierce College and 3CSN

This session presents assessment as a strengths-based, equity-minded process for improving student learning. Participants will explore the Appreciative Inquiry framework and how it helps faculty and assessment leaders build on what is already working for students. The discussion will focus on using assessment to surface successes, identify opportunities for growth, and guide improvements in instruction, student support, and institutional practice.

In collaboration with 3CSN

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Making Student Learning Observable: What Assessment Looks Like in Practice

Friday, October 9, 2026 | Register for this session
Erin Bentrim, Ph.D., Insights by eLumen, with Jessica Carroll, Cabrillo College; Meghan Basgall, Ph.D., Mt. San Jacinto College; and Grace Jackson, Ph.D., College of Western Idaho

This panel explores what it actually looks like to make student learning observable in practice. Practitioners from three institutions will share examples from their assessment work, discuss common challenges, and reflect on what they have learned. Sponsored by Insights by eLumen.

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Don’t Be Spooked by Assessment: From Canvas Outcomes to Gen Ed Outcomes

Friday, October 16, 2026 | Register for this session
Julie Bauer Morrison, Ph.D., Glendale Community College (Arizona)

This session traces nearly a decade of institutional learning assessment at Glendale Community College, from adopting new outcomes and assessing them in Canvas to making results visible on a college dashboard. A statewide General Education redesign then raised new questions about how existing outcomes and data could support Gen Ed assessment. Participants will explore current thinking on more explicit Gen Ed outcomes, faculty communities of practice, and building on work already underway, with a few assessment tricks and treats along the way.

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Capturing When, Where, and How Learning Happens in an Online Course

Friday, October 23, 2026 | Register for this session
Barbara Komlos, Ed.D., University of British Columbia Okanagan, and Linda O’Donoghue, Okanagan College

Two educational developers designed and facilitated a fully online Instructional Skills Workshop that models best practices in asynchronous and synchronous instruction. Participants from two institutions designed and delivered short lessons of their own, while participants and facilitators went through cycles of reflection. This session shows how those cycles supported assessment “as” and “for” learning and revealed when, where, and how workshop outcomes were met.

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Interrogating, Disrupting, and Reframing College Student Learning Outcomes: A Conversation with Contributors

Friday, October 30, 2026 | Register for this session
Jarek Janio, Ph.D., Santa Ana College and COACHes, with Donald Gaff, Professor, University of Northern Iowa, and Jun Fu, Michigan State University

This special session introduces Interrogating, Disrupting, and Reframing College Student Learning Outcomes, newly released from Routledge. The author and contributors will discuss why learning outcomes need to be reexamined, what changes when outcomes are anchored in observable student learning, and how the book’s vignettes show that work in practice.

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Building Competency-Based Education at Coastline College: Progress, Challenges, and Solutions

Friday, November 6, 2026 | Register for this session
Aeron Zentner, D.B.A., Coastline College, and team

The Coastline College team will share their journey implementing competency-based education, from early design decisions to the progress they have made so far. Presenters will discuss the challenges they encountered along the way and the practical solutions that helped them move forward. Participants will leave with lessons that can inform CBE efforts on their own campuses.

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From Learning Outcomes to Opportunity: Making Skills Visible, Verifiable, and Useful

Friday, November 13, 2026 | Register for this session
Robert Bajor, Micro-credential Multiverse, with higher education partners

Higher education invests significant effort in defining and assessing what students know and can do, but what happens to that evidence once a learner leaves the classroom? This conversation explores how institutions can turn learning outcomes and demonstrated competencies into portable, verifiable skills that students carry into further education and employment. Examples will include digital credentials, learning and employment records, digital wallets, and skills data, with an emphasis on what institutions can do today.

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Getting Learning Right: The Promise of Higher Education

Friday, December 4, 2026 | Register for this session
Kristi Girdharry, Ph.D., Babson College

Drawing on her new book from The MIT Press, which she co-authored, Dr. Girdharry will explore how colleges can place learning at the center of institutional design. The conversation will look at how institutions can help students connect their learning across contexts and better recognize what students have actually learned. Participants will leave with questions and ideas for bringing that focus to outcomes assessment on their own campuses.

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Grand Finale: From Outcomes to Evidence of Learning

Friday, December 11, 2026 | Register for this session
Jarek Janio, Ph.D., Santa Ana College and COACHes, with Bobbijo Pinnelli, Walden University

The Fall 2026 Friday SLO Talks series closes with a panel conversation on moving from stated outcomes to evidence of learning. Panelists will draw on their own work and on the semester’s conversations to explore what makes evidence of learning credible, observable, and useful. Participants will leave with practical questions for strengthening evidence of learning on their own campuses.

To keep every talk focused on meaningful and actionable professional growth, presenters are asked to specify the Student Learning Outcomes, skills, or competencies that attendees will walk away with. Each outcome should be written using observable, measurable verbs from Bloom’s Taxonomy, for example: list effective strategies for aligning course activities with program-level outcomes, analyze examples of rubric-based assessment for performance tasks, evaluate student learning data to make instructional adjustments, or create a sample SLO-aligned assignment using Canvas tools.

Avoid vague or unmeasurable terms like “understand,” “appreciate,” or “gain insight.” Focus on what participants will do as a result of your presentation, and include at least three clear, skill-based learning outcomes with your proposal.

Because the talks welcome a wonderfully diverse audience, all presentation materials should meet ADA accessibility standards so that every participant, whatever their visual, hearing, or other needs, can take part fully.