Teaching Guides & Resources > Course Design > Curriculum Mapping and Alignment
Curriculum mapping provides the opportunity to take a big picture view of your course objectives, delivery, and assessment to ensure they are working together. By mapping out what we teach, how we teach it, and how we assess it we can ensure a more coherent and effective student learning experience.
The Benefits of Curriculum Mapping
There’s no escaping the fact that curriculum mapping requires an investment of time. With so many competing depends for such a finite resource, let’s start by looking at what the return an investment in curriculum mapping might yield.
- Clearer Course Structure: A well-mapped course provides a clear, logical flow that helps students understand how each part of the course fits together. This clarity can boost student confidence and engagement.
- More Targeted Teaching: With a clear map, you can focus your teaching on the areas that matter most, providing more targeted support where students need it.
- Improved Assessment Practices: Aligning assessments with learning outcomes ensures that you’re measuring what matters, leading to more meaningful and fair assessments.
- Enhanced Student Learning and Success: When students know what they’re learning, why they’re learning it, and how they’ll be assessed, they’re more likely to be engaged and succeed.
What Does Curriculum Mapping Look Like?
At its core, curriculum mapping is about making sure that the course's learning outcomes, teaching methods, and assessments are all aligned and working together. It’s like creating a “roadmap” for your course that shows students (and yourself) how the journey from start to finish is organized, where important milestones are, and how students will demonstrate their learning along the way.
Steps to Create or Refine a Course-Level Curriculum Map
- Start with Your Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs): Review the learning outcomes for your course. These are the specific things you want students to know or be able to do by the end of the term. Are they clear, specific, and measurable? If needed, refine them to make sure they reflect what’s most important for student success.
- List Major Topics and Units: Break down your course into its major topics, units, or modules. These should align with your learning outcomes. Think of this as creating the “skeleton” of your course—the structure that everything else builds on.
- Map Outcomes to Topics and Units: Create a simple chart or table where you list the course learning outcomes along one axis and the topics or units along the other. Indicate where each outcome is Introduced (I), Reinforced (R), or Mastered (M) within the course. This helps you see how each outcome is being addressed throughout the course.
- Align Assessments with Learning Outcomes: Review your assessments (quizzes, exams, projects, presentations, etc.) and make sure they are aligned with your learning outcomes. Each assessment should provide evidence that students have achieved the desired outcomes. If an assessment doesn’t align well, consider revising it or replacing it with something more targeted.
- Align Instructional Strategies with Learning Outcomes: Consider the teaching methods, activities, and resources you’re using for each topic. Are they helping students achieve learning outcomes? Are there opportunities to introduce more active learning, discussions, or hands-on activities? Adjust your strategies as needed to better support student learning.
- Check for Gaps and Redundancies: Use your map to look for any gaps where an outcome isn’t addressed enough or areas where you might be repeating content unnecessarily. Small adjustments can help ensure a more balanced and comprehensive course.
- Gather Feedback and Reflect: Share your course map with colleagues for feedback and use it as a tool for reflection at the end of each term. What worked well? What could be improved? This reflection can guide continuous improvement efforts.
Example Curriculum Map
Curriculum mapping is a practical, straightforward way to enhance teaching and learning without needing to start from scratch. By taking a thoughtful look at what you’re already doing and making small, intentional adjustments, you can create a more cohesive, aligned, and impactful course for your students. Start small, build on what’s working, and keep refining—it’s all about continuous improvement!
