Curriculum mapping

A curriculum provides learning experiences that build student knowledge, skills, and attitudes over time. Because of the complexity of a curriculum, it can be difficult to understand what students learn, when and where they learn it, and how student learning is measured. Mapping is a key tool for seeing relationships between different learning experiences by examining the role of each building towards program learning objectives as well as better understanding where to assess and document learning.

A curricular map

  • Provides a visualization for how courses and educational experiences in a program fit together to achieve program-level learning objectives
  • Provides a visualization for how student learning is demonstrated
  • Creates a conversational lens through which to reflect on a program
  • Helps identify academic gaps, redundancies, or misalignment
  • Promotes cohesion within a program

In its simplest form, the curricular map is built on a two-dimensional matrix, with the learning objectives arrayed across the top (the x-axis) and courses listed down the left side (the y-axis). With this simple map, limited information is provided because an “X” does not tell us all that much regarding how a learning outcome is addressed in a course, the extent of the learning, or assessments used to evaluate learning.

  Course 1 Course 2 Course 3
Learning objective 1 x x x
Learning objective 2   x x
Learning objective 3 x x  

Levels of Learning (Undergraduate programs)

To provide deeper understanding, additional layers can be mapped to demonstrate when, where, and how learning objectives are addressed. These additional aspects of a map can assist in answering these questions:

Does this experience introduce learners to the learning objective, reinforce it, or represent the point at which learners will have mastered it?

  • When, where, and how are students assessed on the learning objective?
  • Do we provide a variety of assessments for students to demonstrate their learning?
  • How do we define successful achievement of that learning objective?
  Course 1 Course 2 Course 3
Learning objective 1 I R M
Learning objective 2   I M
Learning objective 3 I M  

 

Introduce (I)

At this level, students are not expected to be familiar with the content or skill at the collegiate level when they start the course. Learning activities focus on basic knowledge/skills and entry-level complexity.

  • Student is first exposed to a concept or skill
  • Focus on theory, rather than application

 Reinforce (R)

At this level, students are expected to possess a foundation in knowledge and skills. This level allows students to learn the material in more depth; instructional activities build upon previous competencies with increased complexity.

  • Student applies the concept in varying or multiple situations
  • Student performs skill in more complex situations
  • Focus on theory and application

 Mastery (M)

Students are expected to possess an advanced level of knowledge and skills; instructional activities focus on the use of knowledge/skills in multiple contexts and at multiple levels of complexity. Upon completion, students can demonstrate their mastery of each learning objective at the level expected for graduation.

  • Student is expected to understand concept or skill prior to taking course
  • Student utilizes concept or skill in conjunction with other concepts and/or skills within the discipline or other disciplines

Assessing Learning and Setting Targets

A curricular map can be expanded to serve as an assessment plan by including information about how student learning is measured. Assessment measures can be grouped into two categories: direct and indirect measures. Indirect measures provide information on attitudes and perceptions of learning. Direct measures capture what students can actually do. Direct measures evaluate student learning by assessing actual samples of student work, such as exams, papers, projects, presentations, and performances. Not all course-based assessments need to be included in a curricular map, only those that align closely with the learning objective.

In addition to selecting assessment measures, target goals for achievement help guide reflection and analysis of student performance. When considering student learning, we set goals for what is considered a demonstration of mastery, the desired or expected level of performance.

Tips for setting goals

  • Do set reasonable but rigorous targets.
  • Do set a goal for achievement that includes what success looks like and how many students achieved this

Example: 75% of students will achieve a minimum of 8 out of 10 on the rubric for the capstone project

Example: 75% of students will achieve a minimum of 80% on the final project

  • Do consider adjusting goals higher once they are met
  • Do use rubrics for grading to reduce subjectivity and to evaluate on the intended learning objective(s)
  • Do set goals for individual criteria on a rubric if only a portion of the rubric applies to that learning objective

Example: 80% of students will achieve a minimum of 3 out of 4 on the clarity of writing criterion on the rubric for the final paper

  • Do include only questions from an exam that pertain to that learning objective in the goal

Example: 75% of students will achieve a minimum of 80% on the 5 questions pertaining to the structure of the cell

  • Do not use overall course grade as a measure since multiple assessments are typically used in a course and therefore multiple learning objectives impact the course grade
  • Do not use average grade on an assessment to measure achievement unless the assessment only measured that one learning objective
  • Do not use average overall score on a rubric unless all criteria on the rubric relate to the specific learning objective