Course Section Learning Outcomes Audit | HelioCampus Assessment Management Knowledge Base

The Course Section Learning Outcomes Audit provides a detailed view of inherited Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) or Course Section Learning Outcomes (SCLOs) that have been added to individual course sections. It enables users to audit the presence of outcomes at the section level, verify that sections inherit CLOs from their parent course, and identify where section-specific outcomes have been added. This report belongs to the Course and Course Section Audits category and is accessible from Analytics > Report Library > Course and Course Section Audits > Course Section Learning Outcomes Audit.

User roles with permissions to utilize this report include:

College Admin
Course Coordinator
Course Designer Roles
Course Section Director

Department Admin
Course Section Director
Institution Admin
Instructor

Survey Admin Roles
Teaching Assistant

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Product Tip

Users with hierarchy roles (e.g., Institution Admin, College Admins, etc.) will only see the business objects (Colleges, Departments, courses, etc.) to which they are associated. For example, College Admins can configure report parameters and view report results for the course sections associated with the colleges for which they are assigned the admin role.

Use Cases

Verify section-level outcome inheritance before assessment activities begin

At the start of each term, assessment offices may need to confirm that course sections have properly inherited CLOs from their parent courses. This report allows filtering by term and department to quickly flag sections missing inherited outcomes before assignments are created.

Identify sections with custom SCLOs for curriculum review

When departments allow Instructors to add section-specific learning outcomes, curriculum committees need visibility into where SCLOs have been created. The With SCLO filter enables a targeted review of section-level customizations.

Audit compliance across published sections

Institutions may require all published sections to have at least one CLO or SCLO. Filtering by status and the Without CLO or Without SCLO parameters produces a compliance gap report suitable for sharing with department chairs.

Monitor outcome readiness for sections linked to survey evaluations

Before launching course evaluation surveys tied to learning outcomes, administrators may need to verify that target sections have the expected CLOs in place. Running this report filtered by term and course provides that verification.

Considerations

Section Status Filtering Defaults: The report filters to sections with statuses of Published, Faculty Pending, or Approval Pending. Draft sections are excluded by default.
Instructor Display: The Instructor column aggregates all Instructors assigned to a section (Instructor and Course Section Director roles). If a section has multiple Instructors, they will appear together in the Instructor parameter.
Inherited vs. Section-Specific Outcomes: The CLO count reflects outcomes inherited from the parent course; the SCLO count reflects outcomes added directly to the section. These are independent counts.
Parameter Selection Limits Apply: When parameter selections exceed the platform limit, the report cannot be generated. Narrow filters if this limitation is encountered.

Best Practices

Run this report each term after course sections are created to verify CLO inheritance before assessment activities begin.
Use the Without CLO parameter to quickly identify sections that may need attention from department coordinators.
Export to CSV for sections with high SCLO counts to review the specific outcomes added at the section level.
Pair this report with the Assignment Detail Audit to verify that sections with CLOs also have assignments configured for assessment.

Report Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description & Visibility Limitations
Parameters are listed in alphabetical order
College/Administrative Division	Required	Filters course sections by college or administrative division. Selecting a college automatically filters the Department / Administrative Unit, Course / Co-Curricular Activity, and Course Section dropdowns.
Course/Co-Curricular Activity	Optional	Filters to specific courses using a type-ahead search. Filtered by the selected College and Department values. Selecting a course automatically filters the Course Section dropdown.
Course Section	Optional	Filters to specific course sections. Filtered by the selected Term, Course, Department, and College values. Only sections with statuses of Published, Faculty Pending, or Approval Pending are available.
Department/Administrative Unit	Required	Filters course sections by department or administrative unit. Filtered by the selected College value. Selecting a department automatically filters the Course / Co-Curricular Activity and Course Section dropdowns.
Hide Selected Parameters in Report Results	Optional	When checked, it hides the selected parameter summary section from the report output.
Outcomes	Optional	Filters sections based on outcome presence. Options: All (default), With CLO (sections with inherited course learning outcomes), Without CLO (sections missing inherited CLOs), With SCLO (sections with section-specific outcomes), Without SCLO (sections without section-specific outcomes).
Status	Optional	Filters course sections by their workflow status. Options include: Faculty Pending, Approval Pending, and Published. Multiple statuses can be selected.
Term	Required	Filters course sections by academic term. Multiple terms can be selected. Selecting a term automatically filters the Course Section dropdown.

Report Output

Once report parameters have been configured and Run Report has been clicked, the report output will display below the collapsed read-only view of the report parameters. Clicking Edit Report Parameters will reopen edit capabilities; once parameters have been edited, Run Report can be clicked again to re-generate the report output. Clicking Save Report Parameters opens the Create a New Saved Report pop-up, where the new saved report's name and description can be entered. Once a report has been saved, it will be available via the My Saved Reports tab of the Report Library.

The report output displays a tabular list of course sections with the following columns. If "No Data Returned" is displayed, verify that course sections exist for the selected term, college, and department combination, and that the Status and Outcomes parameters are not overly restrictive.


1	Course section information, including code, section title, associated term, college, department, and Instructor
2	The total count of Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) and Course Section Learning Outcomes (SCLOs).
3	The report output can be exported to PDF, Excel, CSV formats, or printed. Selecting Save Report as PDF will display a PDF export in the My Document Requests dashboard widget once the request is processed.
4	Each course section in the output will display CLOs and SCLOs as applicable, depending on the configuration of the Outcomes parameter.

When exported to CSV or Excel, the report includes additional detail columns:

Is Course CLO: Indicating whether the outcome was inherited
Course Learning Objective Code: Providing the full text of each individual CLO per section row.
Course Learning Objective Description: Providing the full text of each individual SCLO per section row.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a CLO and an SCLO?

A CLO (Course Learning Outcome) is defined at the course catalog level and inherited by all sections of that course. An SCLO (Section Course Learning Outcome) is an outcome added directly to a specific course section by an Instructor or section coordinator. The CLO count and SCLO count columns in the report reflect these two distinct types.

Why does a section show 0 CLOs even though the parent course has CLOs defined?

This can occur if the course section was created before CLOs were added to the parent course, or if there was an issue with outcome inheritance. Use the Actions link to navigate to the section and verify its outcome configuration.

Can the report be filtered to see only sections taught by a specific instructor?

The report does not include a direct Instructor filter parameter. However, results can be narrowed by using the Course Section filter to find specific sections, or by exporting the report and filtering in a spreadsheet by the Instructor column.

Report	Description
Course Learning Outcomes Audit	Audits CLOs at the course catalog level, useful for verifying that CLOs are defined before checking section inheritance. Learn more.
Assignment Detail Audit	Shows assignment configurations per section, helpful for verifying that sections with outcomes also have assessment assignments.