Curriculum Mapping
Overview & Delivery Cycle /
Prepared by the Curriculum Mapping Committee /
Curriculum mapping is intended as a collaborative process of reviewing, revising, creating, and mapping course curriculum. Through focused conversations among program teams and led by a trained facilitator, curriculum mapping will bring to light many aspects of a program’s curriculum: common themes and connections between individual courses can be identified, the relevance of course content can be explored and many facets of alignment within courses and within the program can be examined. The final product of the review is a visual representation of the interconnection of individual courses within a program.

The Purpose

Curriculum mapping can serve many purposes, depending on the perspective of thestakeholder.

From the college perspective, curriculum mapping aligns course learning outcomes with vocational learning outcomes and essential employability skills. It also aligns course outlines with the delivery of curriculum within individual courses. Curriculum mapping provides the evidence that course and program learning outcomes are being met. In addition, curriculum mapping supports credit transfer and mobility.

For our community partners, a curriculum map will illustrate the alignment of the program with current trends or standards within the industry.

For the faculty team curriculum mapping willstimulate conversations about individual courses and the associated learning outcomes, classroom activities, and assessment and evaluation.

For students, the curriculum mapping process communicates the sequence of study over the duration of the program and helps to clarify how course learning outcomes are interconnected and related to program learning outcomes or vocational standards.

The Process: A Five Year Cycle

Curriculum mapping and program reviews are comprehensive processes that align with the college’s philosophy of continuous improvement and quality assurance. This process can be separated into four phases which will take five years to complete.

Phase 1 – Program Identification & Training

Formal Program Reviews are conducted every five years. Each year 10-15 programs are selected to undergo the Formal Program Review process.

Once programs are identified, selected faculty members from each program are enrolled in the Aligning and Building Curriculum (ABC)Institute. The ABC training occurs in the spring semester (4 day program) of each year.

Phase2 – Program Review

After completing the ABC training, the Formal Program Review begins. This process takes approximately two semesters to complete and will generate a preliminary curriculum map and a set of recommendations for curriculum improvement and changes.

Phase 3 – Curriculum Mapping

Program teams will begin the Curriculum Mapping Phase. This phase will be a facilitated process facilitated bythe Curriculum Developer. The result of this phase is the creation of a Curriculum Map for the program.

  1. Orientation to Curriculum Mapping - The Curriculum Mapping process begins with an orientation sessiongives the program team a look at the big picture when examining their curriculum. Questions such as who are your learners and what will graduates need to do “out there” that weare responsible for teaching them “in here” leads us to focus on our goals for the whole program as opposed to looking at our own individual courses.
  2. Map Course Learning Outcomes to Program Standards/Vocational Learning Outcomes and Essential Employability Skills – This will be accomplished by reviewing the courses, their alignment to program outcomes and the sequencing and scaffolding of courses. We willcreate a detailed map connecting CourseLearning Outcomes (CLO) to the Vocational/Program Learning Outcomes (VLO) and Essential Employability Skills (EES). (See Sample Report below).Gaps and overlaps will be analyzed and discussed.
  3. Align Course Content, Learning Activitiesand Assessments with Course Learning Outcomes. A review of learning activities, resources used and assessments in each course will help to align all parts of a course.
  4. Final Program Map. A visual representation of the program is created.

Phase 4 – Ongoing Program Reflection & Review

For the next two years as part of the five year cycle, ongoing program reflection and review continues under the direction of the Associate/Campus Dean. Goals identified during the Annual Program Self Audits will be implemented and the Curriculum Map will be updated to reflect the changes.

Curriculum Mapping Overview and Delivery Cycle –April 2015Page 1