Outstanding Features

Learning Outcomes

These college outcomes are the learning goals for all Cascadia students, faculty, administrators and staff. When practiced as lifelong learning habits, they encourage personal growth, enhance productive citizenship, and foster individual and cooperative learning. As they are assessed inside and outside the classroom, these outcomes guide learning, decision-making and actions by all members of the college community.

Cascadia student Ginny Higgins came up with the concept for the Learning Outcomes Logo.

View the full Learning Outcomes Diagram.

Learn   Actively

Learning is a personal, interactive achievement that results in greater expertise and a more comprehensive understanding of the world.

• Develop expertise, broaden perspectives and deepen understanding of the world by seeking information and engaging in meaningful practice
• Construct meaning from expanding and conflicting information
• Engage in learning, both individually and with others, through reading, listening, observing and doing
• Take responsibility for learning

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Think   Critically, Creatively & Reflectively

Reason and imagination are fundamental to problem solving and critical examination of self and others.

• Create, integrate and evaluate ideas across a range of contexts, cultures and areas of knowledge
• Recognize and solve problems using creativity, analysis and intuition
• Examine one’s attitudes, values and assumptions, and reflect on their implications and consequences

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Communicate   with Clarity & Originality

The ability to exchange ideas and information is essential to personal growth, productive work, and societal vitality.

• Organize and articulate ideas for a range of audiences and purposes
• Use written, spoken and symbolic forms to convey concepts creatively
• Use technology to gather, process and communicate information

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Interact   in Diverse & Complex Environments

Successful negotiation through our increasingly complex, interdependent and global society requires knowledge and awareness of others as well as enhanced interaction skills.

• Build interpersonal skills through knowledge of diverse ideas, values and perspectives
• Collaborate with others in complicated, dynamic and ambiguous situations
• Practice civility, empathy, honesty and personal responsibility

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Group Work

Cascadia believes strongly that all students need to develop the ability to work effectively in small group settings. We believe that teamwork directly furthers each of our core learning outcomes. This is a belief that is supported by extensive research on effective teaching and learning. Employers consistently tell us that the ability to acommunicate, problem-solve, make decisions and interact with diverse individuals and viewpoints in a group setting is critical to success in the workplace, no matter what type of position one holds. Students must know how to work and interact collaboratively in order to survive in today's complex, interdependent and increasingly international world. This is why teamwork is important to Cascadia. Students will find classes throughout Cascadia's curriculum - foundation classes, academic classes, technology classes - that require students to work in group settings on a variety of projects.

Distance Learning

Cascadia offers distance learning classes online and by telecourse. Please see the quarterly schedule of classes for courses offered. Cascadia's online courses are designed by Cascadia faculty or offered through Washington Online (WAOL), a cooperative effort among Washington's 34 community and technical colleges. For more information, and a complete listing of student services and course offerings, see the WAOL Web site: www.waol.org or Cascadia's Web site www.cascadia.edu.

Electronic Portfolio
(ePortfolio)

At Cascadia, students develop personalized, electronic, Web-based portfolios to demonstrate their learning. The ePortfolio provides a place to record and store a wide range of important materials and information, including career and educational goals, academic accomplishments, special projects, personal reflections and affirmations from others. The ePortfolio holds tangible products that demonstrate students' skills and showcases their accomplishments. Students create an initial portfolio as part of the College Strategies or Careers in Information Technology classes and continue to add to its content throughout their college experience. The ePortfolio is an effective way for students to demonstrate knowledge, skills and abilities to prospective employers or universities.

Learning Communities

Learning Communities offer an alternative to the traditional individual course approach. These programs are based on specific themes and synthesize knowledge and ideas across different disciplines to help students understand patterns and make connections among different schools of knowledge, and to integrate their studies with personal experience and intellectual growth.

A typical program might meet two days a week for four hours daily. The course may include workshops, seminars, lectures, field trips, group projects and writing assignments. Seminars play a crucial role in the learning process, in which participants learn to analyze and critique arguments, cooperate in group discussion, read critically and debate logically. Writing assignments and group projects allow students to clarify and express their ideas and make connections among many subjects.

Learning Communities represent an integrated educational approach. College level Learning Community courses apply to the AIS and AS degrees, and may transfer to other colleges and universities.

View these and other exciting initiatives by clicking on the options to the left.