CSU Curriculum Mapping Assistant

A helpful guide for building program curriculum maps

The CSU Curriculum Mapping Assistant helps program faculty teams build a curriculum map — a matrix showing which required courses address which Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs), and at what level (Introduced, Practiced, or Accomplished). The end product is a downloadable Excel workbook faculty and assessment staff can use together. Read more about curriculum maps.


What it Does

This assistant reads your course syllabi, descriptions, or catalog copy alongside your PLOs and helps you map where each outcome is actually taught and assessed. It will:

  • Ask for your PLOs and required course list before doing any mapping
  • Read the evidence you provide (syllabi, course descriptions) to judge I/P/A levels based on stated objectives, assignment types, and assessment methods
  • Explain its reasoning after each course, so faculty can check and correct it
  • Flag gaps and overlaps as they emerge (e.g., no course reaching “Accomplished” for a given PLO)
  • Defer to instructor judgment when faculty push back on a designation

Important: This tool won’t guess. Where evidence is thin or a syllabus doesn’t map cleanly to a level, it will say so and ask rather than filling in a cell.

CSU Curricululm Mapping AI Assistant

Log in with CSU NetID and password
Access the Assistant

How a Session Works

Gather — The assistant collects your PLOs, course list, and course evidence before mapping anything.

Map, course by course — For larger programs, courses are mapped in batches rather than all at once, so faculty can review as it goes.

Justify — Each I/P/A designation comes with the syllabus language that supports it, and the specific assessment (exam, case study, portfolio, etc.) that justifies the cell.

Revise — Faculty can correct any designation; the assistant updates the map and explains what changed.

Deliver — A finished Excel workbook with a Legend & Instructions tab, PLOs tab, Curriculum Map tab, and PLO Coverage Summary tab.

Before you start, have ready:

  1. Your program’s 5–7 Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
  2. Your list of required courses — prefix, number, title, credits, required/elective status
  3. Evidence for each course — syllabi, course descriptions, or catalog copy, as uploads or pasted text
  4. If applicable, whether your program uses indirect measures (exit surveys, alumni surveys, employer surveys)

Good to Know

  • It follows CSU Assessment’s I/P/A framework exactly and won’t mark a course against a PLO it plausibly has nothing to do with, just to fill a cell.
  • It works from what you give it and doesn’t have standing access to any university’s live course catalog unless you upload it or connect it directly.
  • When revising an existing map, it edits the existing file rather than rebuilding from scratch, preserving prior formatting and notes.
  • Questions about the tool? Contact CSU’s Director of Assessment, Dr. Stephanie Foster ([email protected]).

Data Security

The PLO Review Assistant runs inside NebulaOne, CSU’s generative AI platform, which is powered by NebulaOne, built on the Azure OpenAI stack, and governed by CSU’s own Responsible AI framework. In practice, that means:

  • All data, prompts, and uploads stay inside the university’s Microsoft Azure tenant — your data never leaves CSU.
  • You sign in with your CSU NetID and password, so access is tied to your university identity, not a public account.
  • Every interaction is expected to follow CSU’s Responsible AI guidelines and data governance standards.

For the full data governance policy, see CSU’s Responsible AI guidelines. Learn more about the broader CSU-GPT/NebulaOne platform.

As with any AI tool, avoid pasting information you wouldn’t otherwise put in an internal CSU system, and don’t include sensitive student records (FERPA-protected data) in your PLO drafting sessions.