Curriculum Mapping Across the Disciplines: Differences, Approaches, and Strategies

Abstract

Curriculum mapping can be used to document, align, visualize, and assess curricular data, such as learning outcomes, assessment materials, instructional techniques, and student pre-and post-testing scores. A cross-disciplinary Curriculum Mapping Initiative currently underway at the University of Toronto Mississauga aims to: (1) develop guidelines for the curriculum mapping process; (2) develop cross-disciplinary curriculum mapping templates and samples to guide departments through the curriculum mapping process; (3) communicate narratives for how to use curriculum mapping to inform curricular change; (4) develop visualization strategies for curricular data; (5) initiate a plan for dissemination and sustainability; and (6) initiate a plan for informing students about how to use curricular maps in their academic experiences. Through this curriculum mapping initiative, we have discovered that discipline-specific differences exist in approaches to curriculum mapping. The purpose of this paper is to communicate these cross-disciplinary similarities and differences in purpose, process, and utilization of curriculum mapping strategies. We found that different departments had some common ground in the curriculum mapping process, but also key differences. The differences could be categorized according to: purpose for initiating the curriculum mapping process; approach to curriculum mapping; dissemination of completed maps; dealing with pedagogical jargon; and faculty buy-in.

Curriculum Mapping and Needs Assessment to Inform the Training of Health Policy Leaders

“…The goal of curriculum mapping is to give a broad overview of a specific curriculum 1 as well as ensure a link between coordinated curricular content and desired program outcomes in a transparent and accessible manner. 2 Curriculum mapping has been used across numerous educational settings 3 including kindergarten -12 th grade education, 4 higher education, 5 and medical and health care training. 6 Needs assessments are used to identify gaps in specific learning or performance.…”

The Optimization Methodology of the Digital Model of the Educational Program Based on Learning-Forgetting Functions

“…The need to expand the studied subject areas and increase the level of development of educational information imposes increased requirements for the design of appropriate educational programs, and, especially, their key components -curricula [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”

“…Building the structure of the graph of the relationship between the sections of the course, identifying the density of information links and dependencies between them -all this is the basis for the analysis of the curriculum in both domestic and foreign practice [1,[4][5][6][7][8], forming the basis for increasing the effectiveness of the educational process [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

Methodology for the Curriculum Structuring, Formation and Analysis Based on a Quantitative Assessment of Logical Connectivity

“…Constructing the graph of the relationship between the course modules, identifying the density of information links and dependencies between them -all this is the basis for the curriculum analysis in both domestic and foreign practice [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9], forming the basis for increasing the educational process effectiveness [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”