What is curriculum mapping?
Curriculum mapping is a planning tool and a process for identifying, designing, monitoring, evaluating and controlling the balance and the relationships between parts of a program and the courses that make up the program.
What are some of the major roles of curriculum mapping
Curriculum mapping can help ensure effective alignment between learning outcomes, learning activities, and assessments by:
- Identifying program intent and structure and how elements of a program and its courses align
- Identifying the relationships between the learning outcomes, the elements and parts of a program as a whole and of its courses
- Identifying assessment and learning-outcome alignment at both program and course levels
- Identifying opportunities for integration and alignment within and across programs; this is especially important in double degrees
- Identifying distinctiveness and differences of each program in comparison to other programs
- Identifying any misalignment within each program and its courses
- Identifying any gaps, content duplication and redundancies within each program and its courses.
Curriculum mapping can also support better outcomes for individual students by:
- Showing students how the program is structured, where they are in the program and how they can plan their progress within the program
- Showing students what they have learned, enabling them to build on appropriate levels of complexity of the knowledge and skills they have acquired as they have progressed through the program
- Identifying student levels of achievement, as demonstrated by completion of multiple assessment tasks linked to course, specialisation and program learning outcomes
Where is the relevant UNSW information on curriculum mapping?
UNSW Program Design Procedure states that all programs are to maintain a (curriculum) map, which demonstrates alignment between ICF elements.
Key references in developing curriculum maps at UNSW
- Program Design and Delivery Policy
- UNSW Program Design Procedure
- UNSW Integrated Curriculum Framework (ICF)
- UNSW Learning Outcomes, writing learning outcomes and examples of good learning outcomes
- Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF)
- Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) Higher Education Threshold Standards
Review professional accreditation and discipline requirements and benchmarks (where appropriate)
Further information on curriculum mapping, please contact the office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience.
Examples and types of curriculum mapping at UNSW
Example 1: PLOs mapped to AQF qualification specifications, UNSW Arts and Social Sciences
Example 2: PLOs mapped to AQF qualification specifications, UNSW Business
Example 3: PLOs mapped to UNSW’s Graduate Capabilities, UNSW Built Environment
Example 4: PLOs mapped to competencies set out by Engineers Australia (the professional accreditation body), UNSW Canberra at ADFA
Example 5: Extracted program and course information from AIMS with additional information in an online mapping system, CMAP, to enable monitoring program/course alignment with the competencies set out by Engineers Australia (the professional accreditation body), UNSW Engineering
Example 6: Phases 1-3 of the PLOs within a program, enabling students to see their progression; PLOs are cumulative, so that once developed they are expected to be refined and exercised in subsequent phases, UNSW Medicine
Example 7: Mapping program distinctiveness to PLOs, UNSW Arts and Social Sciences
Curriculum mapping templates
Sample Curriculum Mapping Template
Sample Curriculum Mapping
Sample Core Course
Sample Elective Course
Sample Assessments Linked to CLOs and PLOs
Program Level
Core Course – Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) and Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)
Core Course – Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs), Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) and Assessments
Word Curriculum-Mapping Template - Download
Excel Curriculum-Mapping Template - Download
Resources for UNSW staff
The Connections Seminar series and the annual Learning and Teaching Forum provide platforms for UNSW staff to explore different aspects of learning and teaching, share ideas and get feedback on practice and research.
Recordings and presentations can be found on the respective Moodle course sites (self-enrolment key provided)
- 2018 Learning and Teaching Forum on 26 October 2018: A teaching community driving curriculum innovation at Art & Design presented by Ms Fiona Nicolson and Mr Douglas Schofield, Faculty of Art & Design (self-enrolment key: lntforum)
- Connections Seminar on November 19, 2018: Why Curriculum Map? Examples from 3 Faculties presented by Professor Bob Fox, Curriculum Academic Lead, Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education), Professor Gary Velan, Senior Vice Dean (Education), UNSW Medicine, Mr Paul Macmullen, Senior Learning & Teaching Advisor, UNSW Business School and Dr Ray Eaton, Associate Dean (Education), UNSW Engineering (self-enrolment key: unswconnections)
- 2019 Learning and Teaching Forum on 26 November 2019: Course Outline Processes as Drivers for Positive Change in Course Outcomes presented by Mr Andrew Chambers, AGSM, Business School (self-enrolment key: lntforum)
- 2019 Learning and Teaching Forum on 26 November 2019: Communication for Success presented by Mrs Angie Nazim and Ms Laura Christie, UNSW Global(self-enrolment key: lntforum)