Program Curriculum Map Template

Write down the program's learning outcomes exactly as published, then test each one: could a graded assignment show a student doing it? Carnegie Mellon's Eberly Center lists "Understand X" and "Gain an appreciation for X" among learning objectives that are typically vague¹. It suggests asking what students would do differently if they really understood.

Rewrite any outcome that fails before you map it. "Graduates will appreciate the importance of health equity" describes an attitude no assignment can show. "Compare a health measure across two populations and explain the difference" names something students do, so a course can grade it. A learning outcomes template helps with the rewrite.

The map's rows are the requirements every student completes, including courses taught by other departments and experiences such as an internship or a comprehensive exam. Leave electives off. Linda Suskie, author of Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide, argues that elective courses have no place in a curriculum map².

Her reason is that the map should show every student getting enough chances to learn each outcome, which electives can't do. Where students choose one of several courses for a requirement, Suskie suggests grouping the options and marking only the outcomes all of them address. She adds that you should be able to view the whole map on one page or screen. If you can't, she writes, the curriculum is probably too complicated.

Agree on what each mark means first. The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's assessment office uses this key: I for introduced, R for reinforced with practice, and M for mastery at the senior or exit level³. It adds A where evidence is collected for program decisions, and suggests every outcome get one.

• Introduce (I): the first course that teaches the outcome and checks it with low-stakes graded work, such as a quiz.
• Reinforce (R): graded practice in a new context, with feedback.
• Master (M): students perform the outcome on their own, scored by a named assessment against a stated standard.
• Blank: the course doesn't grade this outcome. That is an honest answer, not a gap to fill.

Give each coded cell one level. If a course takes students from introduction to graded practice in one term, code the higher level, since the map records the strongest claim a course supports. Don't invent a fourth level for courses that seem to sit between two. It becomes a place to park hard decisions.

Code from syllabi and assignment instructions, not course titles or catalog copy. Suskie's rule is to check off a course only if students are graded² on their progress toward the outcome. A course that mentions teamwork in its description but never grades it gets a blank.

Work through each syllabus with the person who teaches it, and look at what the graded work asks students to do without help. A course called "Advanced" anything may still only introduce an outcome. Record the assessment behind every M by name, so anyone can check the claim.

Then look across each course's row. Mānoa's guide notes that a single course can typically address one to three outcomes³, though capstones may cover more. Suskie advises casting a suspicious eye at any course with every outcome checked off. In this template's example, with 14 courses and seven outcomes, only 26 of the 98 cells carry a level.

Now read down each outcome's column and count its introductions, reinforcements and mastery points. One finding is easy to miss on a checkmark map: an outcome taught in many courses that no course ever assesses at mastery.

Then count where the M marks sit. If most are in one practicum or placement, your evidence for those outcomes depends on what each placement asks. In the template's example, four of the seven M marks sit in a single field practicum.

Check whether your accreditor accepts placement evidence at all. The Council on Education for Public Health, for one, requires standalone bachelor's programs to assess each foundational competency with a specific, required assessment. Each student must demonstrate it individually, and the assessment can't take place in an internship or the culminating experience⁴.

Give every finding a proposed fix and a named owner, or it will sit in the report. Look for cheap fixes first: a graded assignment that was never mapped, or a capstone task that only needs a scoring rubric before it can count as mastery. Flag any fix that needs new teaching, since it costs more.

Never upgrade a cell to close a gap. An M claims that a named assessment measures the outcome against a stated standard. A reviewer who finds one with nothing behind it has reason to doubt every other cell, so record the gap and its fix instead.

Share the finished map with faculty, advisers and students, and update it whenever a required course or its main assessment changes. Accreditation reviewers may ask to see it. In the US, the federal rules for recognizing accreditors require each one to set clear expectations for curricula and for student achievement⁵.

The template on this page holds the matrix, gap register and sequencing check, worked through for a made-up degree. River can code your syllabi into it and run the gap and sequence checks. For alignment inside a single course, start with the course design template.