Kutztown University of PA
10/31/2013
Volume 2, Issue 1
All Things Assessment at KU
All Things Assessment at KU is edited by Dr. Gil Clary, and members of the Advisory Board are Dr. David
Beougher, Dr. Mahfuzul Khondaker, Dr. Michelle Kiec, Dr. John McCarthy, Professor Krista Prock, and Dr.
Carole Wells. Suggestions for articles, announcements, and feedback of any sort are welcomed and appreciated.
Curriculum Maps
Several articles in this issue of the Assessment
Newsletter discuss the concept and practice of
curriculum maps. A curriculum map is developed
for an academic program and indicates where in
the curriculum a learning outcome or goal is taught
to and learned by students. In other words, the
map links specific courses to specific learning
outcomes, and the result is a visual representation
of how students achieve the program’s desired
learning goals. Maps can also be created for the cocurriculum, which would then link specific cocurricular experiences to specific learning goals. At
the end of this newsletter, two examples are
provided – one is a screen shot from the recently
completed mapping of the General Education Goal
1 by GEAC, (see p. 7) and the other the map of
B.S. Business Administration’s map of their
required courses. (see p. 6)
interdependent relationships that foster student
learning through multiple learning opportunities”
(Maki, 2010, p. 61).
There are several good reasons for developing a
curriculum map. The curriculum map is regarded
as a best practice in assessment and indicates where
a learning goal might be assessed by the program.
A better reason for developing a curriculum map is
that it reveals to all how courses in a program are
aligned and “how the acquisition of knowledge and
skills in one course is a necessary condition for
success in the following courses to which it is
linked” (Tinto, 2012, p. 102). Moreover, according
to Maki, curriculum maps present “the
Spotlight: Gen Ed Curriculum Map.............4
For the student, then, curriculum maps highlight
the developmental nature of student learning, and
indicate how a learning opportunity for one goal
builds on other learning opportunities for that
same goal. And for the program, maps reflect the
collective nature of the educational experience
provided by the program, and the program’s
intentionality about how it wishes to cultivate the
critical knowledge, skills, and dispositions of the
discipline. Maps can also be used to guide faculty
Contents
Feature Article: Curriculum Maps…............1
College Assessment News………………………3
Announcement………………………………...…..5
COB Curriculum Map……………………........6
Goal 1 Curriculum Map…….…………...........7
discussions about where and how frequently a
learning goal should be emphasized in the
curriculum, as well as being used in decisions about
where to assess a learning outcome.
1
rarely aligned, either in content or
in pedagogy, in ways that promote
the successful completion of
sequential courses in the first year
and beyond. This lack of
integration occurs not only within
programs of study but within
developmental course sequences as
well. It is still too often the case
that students will successfully
complete their developmental
course sequence only to struggle
and fail in the course to which the
successful completion of that
developmental sequence is a
requirement. (Tinto, 2012, pp. 102103)
With respect to actually developing a curriculum
map, one starts with a grid sheet with the courses
of a program listed down the left side and the
student learning outcomes across the top. In the
simplest case, the map will indicate for each course
which learning outcomes are being taught and
learned. The recent mapping by the General
Education Assessment Committee illustrates the
process, as can be seen in the screen shot of an
Excel file on page 7.
A more sophisticated map links the course to its
placement in the development of the learning
outcome – that is, whether the course Introduces
the outcome, further Develops the outcome, or
provides opportunities for additional Practice of
the learning goal. The curriculum map for the
BSBA program illustrates this approach; this
example is found on page 6 and comes from the
map produced by our assessment management
software TracDat (here, learning outcomes appear
on the left side and courses on the top of the page).
In terms of connecting courses to outcomes, the
ideal situation is that faculty members in a
program come to agreement about the linkages
between courses and outcomes, and especially the
sequence in which learning opportunities are
presented to students as they develop the
knowledge, skill, or disposition.
There are, then, a number of aspects of curriculum
maps and the mapping process that recommend its
use. Curriculum maps provide students with a
pathway through the curriculum and clearly
identify the student learning outcomes that are the
central point of the educational experience.
Moreover, mapping the curriculum encourages a
program’s faculty to collectively think through and
create the pathway, and Tinto (2012) discusses
research showing that students who follow a more
orderly sequence of courses tend to have a higher
graduation rate. Finally, curriculum maps and
mapping
contribute
to
an
institution’s
effectiveness: Jenkins (2006), as quoted in Tinto
(2012), observes that “the key to a college’s
effectiveness is not whether it adopts particular
policies or practices, but how well it aligns and
manages all of its programs and services to support
student success.” (p. 104)
One objection to developing a curriculum map is
that it is redundant with existing practices. It is
useful, I think, to let Tinto speak to this objection:
The common specification of
course prerequisites and the listing
of course numbers suggest a logical
sequence of course taking. Yet
programs of study rarely make
explicit the way courses within a
program are related to each other,
empirically document the degree to
which they are associated with
success in those courses, or
restructure those courses to better
promote student progress through
the program. The courses are
References
Maki, P. L. (2010). Assessing for learning: Building a
sustainable commitment across the institution (2nd
ed). Sterling VA: Stylus.
Tinto, V. (2012). Completing college: Rethinking
institutional action. Chicago: University of
Chicago.
2
College Assessment Committee News
improvement on six national standards, which
include:
College of Business
Early in its journey to AACSB accreditation, the
Department of Business Administration at
Kutztown University developed its first
curriculum maps for the B.S. in Business
Administration and Masters in Business
Administration programs. A first use of the maps
was to identify learning goals that were not
receiving sufficient attention in the curriculum.
These conversations were followed by later
discussions about assessment results, which led to a
series of revisions to the curriculum map, with the
map reflecting where and to what degree an
individual course is directed toward a specific
learning outcome.
 Candidate Knowledge, Skills, and
Professional Dispositions;
 Assessment and Unit Evaluation;
 Field Experience and Clinical Practice;
 Diversity;
 Faculty Qualifications, Performance,
and Development;
 Unit Governance and Resources.
The Board of Examiner Team found that COE
teacher
candidates
exemplify
appropriate
knowledge, skills, and dispositions, as the Unit
aligns internal assessments with state and national
standards and provides for fairness, consistency,
and reliability in its data collection efforts.
Further, the Team confirmed and highlighted that
teacher candidates’ clinical experiences enable them
to integrate general, professional, and pedagogical
knowledge and skills in diverse settings in order to
create meaningful learning experiences for all
students.
In these College of Business programs, the maps
are one link in the larger chain of teaching,
learning, assessment, and improvement. The chain
begins with the program’s mission statement,
which then serves as the basis for the learning
goals. The mapping process begins with linking
each learning goal to specific courses in the
curriculum, a process that is determined by
Business Administration faculty. These linkages
are then used to inform each course’s master
syllabus, with the goal of ensuring that the learning
objectives of the course are aligned with the
curriculum map and at the appropriate level in
Bloom’s taxonomy. The master syllabus then
guides the development of an individual
instructor’s syllabus, which in turn informs the
instructor’s coverage of the learning goal in the
course. Overall, the curriculum maps clearly
demonstrate the strategies being used by the
Business Administration programs to help their
students achieve the essential learning goals.
On Monday, October 28, 2013, NCATE (now
called the Council for the Accreditation of
Educator Preparation or CAEP) gave official
notification to the COE of its Continuing
Accreditation, for an additional 7 years.
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Continuing its focus on assessing student retention,
persistence, and graduation, the College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences used information provided by
the LAS assessment committee to hone in on
advisement. Evidence collected in varied venues
led to the creation of an advisement taskforce that
determined how to support and facilitate one on
one advising sessions between faculty and students.
The taskforce noted the time consumed in
accessing the multitude of policies, forms, and
materials necessary for informed, quality advising.
They determined that time spent searching for
information was a distraction. Their request
resulted in a D2L page for CLAS advisors that
consolidated links and guidelines on one page.
College of Education
In April 2013, the College of Education (COE)
hosted its re-accreditation site visit conducted by a
5-member Board of Examiner team from the
National Council on Accreditation of Teacher
Education (NCATE). NCATE Accreditation is
based upon compliance with and continuous
3
Education curriculum and contributes to the Oral
Communication learning outcome. This work
contributed to the University’s assessment of our
General Education program’s Goal 1 – to cultivate
intellectual and practical skills that are practiced
extensively, across the curriculum, in the context
of progressively more challenging problems,
projects, and standards for performance. The
article is titled “Slaying the assessment dragon: One
department’s efforts to tame the beast and survive
as the knights in shining armor” and appeared in
the peer reviewed, online Journal of the Association
of Communication Administration (volume 32: 1,
pp. 29 – 41).
It can be found at
http://www.unco.edu/aca/Journal.html.
With the D2L page, advisors click on a link and a
new window opens with the form, the policy, or
the check sheet. This enables more time to be
spent advising and less time on looking for
information related to that particular student’s
needs. All faculty advisors in the college have
access to the new site and will be able to use it for
advising this semester.
College of Visual & Performing Arts
Mary Eicholtz (Department of Communication
Studies) and Jay Baglia (a former member of the
department, now at DePaul University) recently
published a case study on their experience in
coordinating the department’s assessment of the
Fundamentals of Oral Communication course
(COM 010). The course is part of the General
Assessment Spotlight: General Education Curriculum Map
exposed to the skills, content, and responsibilities
associated with each of the goals of general
education. It is a matrix that provides a snapshot of
the connection between the curriculum and its
expected outcomes. Its structure consists of an
outline of the three general education goals and
their associated objectives, or learning domains
along with curricular offerings. At KU, the
curriculum map will reflect all active university
courses, since all courses may be used by students
to meet general education requirements.
In fall 2010 Kutztown University implemented an
updated general education curriculum, developed
by the General Education Task Force and
approved by the University Senate, APSCUF
Representative
Council,
and
UCC
(www.kutztown.edu/gened). To ensure the
curriculum’s viability, the task force created the
General Education Assessment Committee
(GEAC) and charged it with implementing and
monitoring a cycle of assessment and continuous
improvement. In this assessment, a curriculum
map is indispensable.
The curriculum map shows strengths and
opportunities of curricular offerings. Since the
matrix reflects the relationship between the
curriculum and its expected outcomes, it has the
potential to reveal gaps in the curriculum. That is,
with the map one can ask if there are learning goals
that are not being covered in the curriculum or are
receiving relatively light coverage. The curriculum
map can also be used to identify courses to be used
to assess a particular goal and domain of the KU
General Education program.
Assessment consists of a systematic and rigorous
method for the collection, analysis, and use of data
related to direct evidence of student learning
outcomes for the purpose of measuring and
ultimately improving the effectiveness of the
general education program. Assessments, in other
words, assist us in answering questions about
whether our students are learning the knowledge,
skills, and dispositions we want all KU students to
possess, and these answers in turn help fuel
continuous improvement.
To develop the first draft of the KU Curriculum
Map, each department was asked to consider every
one of its active courses and use the course
description and/or the course objectives to identify
One important tool in the assessment process is the
curriculum map. The curriculum map is a graphic
presentation that displays where students are
4
Map will be a part of the General Education’s
ongoing assessment and renewal process. As such,
it is a living document and will require periodic
maintenance.
at least one of the domains listed under the three
general education goals that the course addresses.
In the first draft of the curriculum map completed
in Spring 2013, at least 1 and perhaps no more than
2 domains most relevant to each course were
selected. (Refer again to the screenshot of a small
portion of the General Education curriculum map
at the end of this newsletter.) The Curriculum
Announcement
Dr. Lynn Kutch’s (Modern Language Studies) recent teaching – learning – assessment project in a German
language course is featured on a webpage of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
The work is part of AAC&U’s LEAP Campus Toolkit: Resources and Models
(http://leap.aacu.org/toolkit/projects/value-project); the direct link to Dr. Kutch’s work is
http://leap.aacu.org/toolkit/learning-outcomes-assessment/2013/value-reading-rubric-sample.
5
Program - Business Administration (BS) - Curriculum Map
Legend: (1) Introduced, (2) Practiced, (3) Developed
Learning
Outcomes
ACC
121
ACC
122
BUS
131
BUS
171
BUS
320
ECO
11
ECO
12
ECO
360
FIN
350
FIN
365
Communicatio
n skills: Oral
2
Communicatio
n Skills:
Written
.
1, 2
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Teamwork
1, 2
1, 2
1, 2
1, 2
1, 2
Fundamental
Business
Concepts
1, 2
1, 2
1, 2
1, 2
1, 2
Ethics (5.a)
1
1
1, 2
1
.
Impact of
Global
environment
(5.b)
Current
Business
Issues (5.d)
1
1
.
1
.
1
.
.
1
.
.
.
1
.
1, 2
.
.
1
.
1, 2
1, 2
.
.
1
.
1
.
1
6
.
.
.
.
1, 2
.
1, 2
1, 2
1, 2
.
.
.
1, 2
1
1, 2
3
.
.
.
.
3
1
1, 2
MKT
370
3
1, 2
Analysis and
Critical
Thinking
Diversity (5.c)
MGM MGM MGM MGM MKT
210
351
352
399
210
.
1, 2
.
2, 3
3
1
3
1
2, 3
1
3
1, 2
3
1
.
1, 2
.
Portion of the General Education Curriculum Map
7