Curriculum Mapping

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

Alignment

Curriculum mapping can:

Identify program intent and structure and how elements of a program and its courses align
Identify the relationships between the learning outcomes, the elements and parts of the program and the courses that make up each program
Identify assessment and learning outcome alignment at both program and course levels
Identify opportunities for integration and alignment within and across programs, especially important in double degrees
Identify distinctiveness and differences of each program in comparison to other programs
Identify any misalignment within the program and its courses
Identify any gaps, content duplication and redundancies within the program and the courses of the program

Student Progression

Curriculum mapping can:

Show students how the program is structured, where they are in the program and how they can plan their progress within the program
Show students what they have learned, enabling them to build on appropriate levels of complexity of acquired knowledge, skills and their applications and behaviours as they progress through the program
Identify individual student levels of achievement demonstrated by completion of multiple assessment tasks linked to course, specialization and program learning outcomes

Where is the relevant UNSW information on curriculum mapping?

ICF UNSW Program Design Procedure, paragraph 1.2. The Integrated Curriculum Framework and curriculum mapping states that all programs will 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 Professor Bob Fox, PVC(E), bobfox@unsw.edu.au.

Examples and types of curriculum mapping at UNSW

Example 1:

PLOs mapped to AQF qualification specifications. UNSW Arts and Social Sciences.

Example 1

Example 2:

PLOs mapped to AQF qualification specifications. UNSW Business

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Example 3:

PLOs mapped to UNSW’s Graduate Capabilities, UNSW Built Environment.

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Example 4:

PLOs mapped to accreditation body, Engineers Australia competencies. UNSW Canberra at ADFA.

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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 professional accreditation body, Engineers Australia competencies. UNSW Engineering

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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.

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Example 7:

Mapping program distinctiveness to PLOs. UNSW Arts and Social Sciences.

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