What is Course Mapping?
A course map is much like a blueprint for your course. Outside of the learning management system, a course map is a useful tool for faculty and students. A course map assists in the planning of course materials, activities, assessments, and various tools to use so that each class/lesson/unit/module works together to meet the course (and program) outcomes, as what we define as alignment.
For students, a course map is much like a course schedule and provides a clear path of where the course is taking them.
How is Alignment Defined?
Ensuring the alignment of measurable course and lesson objectives with relevant activities and assessments is key to strong course design. Read more about alignment from UC San Diego.
Course alignment refers to the process of ensuring that the content and objectives of a course are closely aligned with the goals and standards of the institution, program, or department in which the course is offered. This typically involves reviewing the course syllabus, materials, and activities, and comparing them to the relevant institutional or programmatic goals and standards.
Course alignment is important because it helps ensure that students are receiving a high-quality education that meets the expectations and requirements of the institution. It also helps ensure that students are acquiring the knowledge, skills, and competencies that they will need in order to succeed in their chosen careers or further studies.
Strengthen Course Design With the End in Mind
Regardless if you teach face-to-face or online courses, designing a brand new course, or evaluating your current course, a recommended framework for designing courses and content units is called “Backward Design.” Instructors typically approach course design in a “forward design” manner, meaning they consider the learning activities (how to teach the content), develop assessments around their learning activities, then attempt to draw connections to the learning goals of the course. In contrast, the backward design approach has instructors consider the learning goals of the course first. These learning goals embody the knowledge and skills instructors want their students to have learned when they leave the course. Once the learning goals have been established, the second stage involves the consideration of assessment. The backward design framework suggests that instructors should consider these overarching learning goals and how students will be assessed prior to consideration of how to teach the content. For this reason, backward design is considered a much more intentional approach to course design than traditional methods of design.
Resources for Course Design
UMBC’s Center for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT) Curriculum Mapping Template for Undergraduate and Graduate Programs
Course Mapping Guide The Online Course Mapping Guide aims to provide faculty and instructors with a resource for online course development, beginning with a curriculum analysis and resulting in a course map that displays the alignment of all components of a course.
Understanding by Design | Vanderbilt University: Based on the book Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Vanderbilt University has a great resource page on Understanding by Design, which includes benefits and stages of the backward design process, and a backward design template.