Getting Organized! Curriculum Mapping

Getting Organized! Curriculum Mapping

Another successful approach to evaluate an OER is to use a course map template to track course outcomes, activities, and teaching resources. A course map, also known as a curriculum map, is a record of teaching and learning that can provide faculty an opportunity to align OER with course learning outcomes. An added advantage to course mapping is unearthing unintentional gaps or redundancies in your learning outcomes. 

Curriculum mapping and redesigning courses are rewarding and, at times, necessary tasks. Unfortunately, these processes can also be cumbersome and time consuming. Many institutions of higher education have Distance Learning professionals or Instructional Designers who are equipped to help ease the process and provide guidance and helpful tools. It’s a good idea to contact these offices before you start collecting course material. 

This course and its modules were developed by MiALA OER IG and adapted from Texas Learn OER. Texas Learn OER used a course map to track, organize, and evaluate content. The template is available for use. Retrieve a copy below, as well as a sample course map:

• Blank Course Map Template

• Texas Learn OER Course Map Sample

A Comment On Quality

Often, in conversations surrounding the evaluation of OER, questions emerge related to quality. A typical question might be: Is the quality of the OER as good as commercially produced copyrighted course material? As with anything, OER content, formatting, and quality will vary. It is good practice to consider HOW quality is defined and measured. David Wiley addressed this in a 2013 blog post on On Quality and OER: 

“For educational materials, the degree to which they support learning is the only meaning of quality we should care about” (Wiley 2013).