Step Two—Mapping Your Objectives Onto Your Curriculum

Look for patterns and gaps in program coverage

Once you have agreed on your program learning objectives, you will probably want to map them onto your curriculum. This is an efficient way to discover whether your core curriculum actually addresses each of your objectives. Simply doing this map may help you to identify interesting questions for assessment projects.

The easiest and fastest way to map your objectives is to create a chart that includes all courses taught throughout the academic year. For courses that are taught by more than one instructor, include a row for each instructor. Then ask each instructor to fill in all the blanks for his or her classes. You can agree to simply indicate whether each program objective is addressed. You may wish, however, to develop codes that indicate the depth of coverage of each objective in more detail. People might indicate, for example, whether the program objective is (a) a central learning objective of the class, (b) not central, but still covered with a fair amount of depth, (c) only covered marginally, or (d) not covered at all.

Below is a chart showing a two-year core course sequence required of majors in the Hypothetical Studies Department.

Upon reviewing this chart, the faculty in Hypothetical Studies may question whether, for instance, Objective 3 is being covered well enough in the curriculum for majors. The faculty may decide to assess some student work samples from the 498 course to see whether there is a problem and, if so, its scope and exact nature. Faculty may realize that everyone thought that the material was being covered in someone else’s course. In any case, the analysis of student work from HYP ST 498 could be the focus of one year’s assessment work, with the following year devoted to making curricular changes.

Identify critical juncture courses

As you think through which courses will provide you with the most useful assessment data, consider the following.

• Pre-requisites, core courses, and other courses occurring at identifiable critical junctures often contain the most important discipline-specific learning, and are frequently closely connected to specific program objectives.

• Courses required toward the end of a program typically reveal the nature and quality of program-long learning, and are a good place to collect post-program work samples.

• Non-required courses that consistently enjoy high levels of enrollment by majors can provide interesting insights into what students value in your curriculum and why.
  

Once you have located the courses that are potentially most useful for assessment, you are ready to move to Step 3.

Lessons from the field:

Relatively simple mapping exercises often reveal previously overlooked holes in the curriculum, or bring a colleague’s vague uneasiness about the curriculum out in the open. This can engender departmental discussions about curriculum and student learning. Remember to take the time to consider what you have learned through your mapping process as you proceed toward developing your assessment plan.