Curriculum Maps
A curriculum map is a visual representation of a program’s curriculum that outlines the scope and sequence of courses and curricular learning experiences in an academic program. It serves as a planning tool for educators to ensure that learning objectives, content, skills, and assessments are well aligned.
Creating a curriculum map allows programs to ensure that each program learning outcome is adequately addressed throughout the course of study. It clarifies which courses are responsible for the instruction and content to help students achieve particular outcomes. The curriculum map helps to identify where opportunities are located for students to develop basic competence, fluency, or accomplishment for desired program skills or knowledge.
Curriculum maps can serve several purposes:
- Alignment: Ensures that what is taught aligns with educational standards or goals.
- Coherence: Provides a logical flow of content and skills development over time.
- Gaps and Overlaps: Helps identify any gaps in content coverage or unnecessary overlaps.
- Collaboration: Facilitates communication and collaboration among teachers, departments, or grade levels.
- Continuous Improvement: Allows for ongoing reflection, adjustment, and refinement based on student needs and outcomes.
Key Elements of a Curriculum Map
Program-level Learning Outcomes: What students are expected to know and be able to do at the completion of an educational program. Most programs will identify 5-7 program-level learning outcomes.
Required Courses: What courses students are expected to complete to build knowledge and skills.
Alignment of Courses to Outcomes with expected knowledge or skill level: At what level is the course designed to help students learn? Introductory means they are expected to demonstrate introductory knowledge or skill (e.g., recall or explain facts, concepts); practiced means they will be able to practice using knowledge or skills (e.g., apply a procedure or analyze how parts relate to or contrast from one another); or accomplished meaning they can demonstrate advanced skills (e.g., evaluate or make judgments based on criteria; create a novel approach, product, or artifact).
Assessments: How student learning will be measured (this includes direct and indirect measures).
Additional Elements to Consider Including
Faculty and program staff may find it helpful to include other elements to inform their programs:
Formative Assessment Opportunities: Low-stakes, “checking in” point to see how well students are doing. Formative assessment is an opportunity to provide feedback to students or to learn from students how the program is supporting their learning goals.
Summative Assessment Opportunities: Evaluates student learning and performance at the end of a unit or course. Summative assessments include exams, papers, projects, and performances. A summative assessment may target more than one learning outcome.
Instructional Strategies and High Impact Practices: Methods and approaches for delivering content and engaging students.
Co-curricular Experiences: Experiences that all students have the opportunity to have, including career programming, community-engaged learning, undergraduate research, peer mentoring, etc.
Using the Map: Reflective Questions for Programs
- Do the learning outcomes align with the ways that we ask learners to demonstrate their learning? How well are those learning outcomes being assessed?
- Is the curriculum designed to help students become more sophisticated thinkers and actors? Are assignments appropriately scaffolded to build knowledge and skills in increasingly complex ways?
- How will you know when students need additional supports for learning? What are some strategies to provide those supports or otherwise get them what they need?
- How have you incorporated student-centered practices into the planning or analysis of the curriculum?
- Does the curriculum provide students with a variety of ways to demonstrate their learning?
- At what points in the course will you seek feedback from students and what will you want to know? Have you considered the role and value of student voice in the design of your course?