What is a course map?

A course map is a visual representation of your course. You may also know it as curriculum alignment or an assessment audit. It allows you to evaluate the meaningful components of your course and align your learning outcomes with course activities. After completing a course map, you can target meaningful changes and set the direction for your course in an effort to increase student learning. Below is an example of a course map. This map was developed by Jason Drysdale and Sara Horton-Deutsch from the College of Nursing.

* Used with permission, copyright 2014

Why use a course map?

Since a course map lives outside of Canvas, it can be a valuable tool for evaluation of your course. We spend MANY hours designing our course, adding content, and creating meaningful learning activities for our students. It is a very personal thing, so by creating a course map, you can begin to look at your course more objectively. This does not mean you need to detach yourself from your work and passion, but as you develop your course map, take a step back and ask yourself, "Why am I asking students to do x? How does it align with the course objectives? Does it add value to student's overall understanding of the course content?"

Your course map is also a great addition to your syllabus. It helps students understand where they are going and what they will learn. With the tools listed below, it is easy to share this map with your students or colleagues.

Creating Your Own Course Map

There are many ways to design a course map. At minimum, your course map should have four levels of organization. You can refer to the example above as a guide.

Row 1: Organized by Weeks (includes main topics)

Row 2: Weekly Content (readings, lectures, videos)

Row 3: Weekly Learning Activities (discussions, paper, etc)

Row 4: Course Competencies or Learning Objectives (connecting lines from activities)

Note: Even if you have topics that span more than one week, organizing your course map based on weeks will help provide you with a realistic view of what is expected from your students each week. This will become clearer when you revisit your course map at the end of this course.

For this week's assignment, you will begin building out your course map. There are a number of tools and templates you can use. We provide you a few examples below, but you could even create your course map on a piece of paper and scan it in. There is no right or wrong way! Use the method that works for you!

Tools

There are endless tools on the web for creating concept maps. We recommend bubbl.us. However, if you are feeling more adventurous, check out this Mashable article for other mind mapping tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl9InWYntac

Create Your Map

Once you have selected a tool, start creating your course map! In most cases, you will start with your course objectives or course competencies. Then, you will create your weeks, add content, and activities. Finally, you will link your course activities to the appropriate objectives. For more details on this assignment, check out the course assignment. As another example, here is a course map of this course!

Credit: Thank you to Jason Drysdale for providing this valuable information regarding course mapping. Jason works closely with faculty from the College of Nursing to improve student learning. He is a graduate of CU Denver's ILT program and has a passion for pop culture, gamification, and intentional learning experiences. CU Online loves collaborating with Jason as his enthusiasm about teaching and learning is contagious!