Curriculum Mapping

 Resources

Medical Student Education Committee

What is Curriculum Mapping?

Curriculum mapping is the process of indexing or diagraming a curriculum to identify contaent and address academic gaps, redundancies, and misalignments for purposes of improving the overall coherence of a course of study and, by extension, its effectiveness.  In most cases, curriculum mapping refers to the alignment of learning standards and teaching—i.e., how well and to what extent a school or instructor has matched the content that students are actually taught with the academic expectations described in learning standards.

What information do we map at Quillen?

  • Medical Educational Program Objectives (MEPOs): The knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes that medical students are expected to exhibit as evidence of their achievement by completion of the program
    • Course Objectives: The specific knowledge, skills, behaviors and attitudes that students will be able to demonstrate by the end of the course. Each course objective should link to at least one IEO.
      • Session/Event Objectives: The specific knowlege, skills, behaviors, and attitudes that students will aquire from an individual learning activity. Each session objective should link to at least one course objective. 

For more information or help with curriculum mapping, contact Aneida Skeens, 423-439-6233. 

  • Curriculum Threads

    Curriculum Threads

    Curriculum threads or cross-cutting themes are content areas identified by MSEC that are woven throughout the curriculum. Below are the current curriculum themes: 

    • Evidence Based Decision Making & Clinical Epidemiology
    • Ethics, Professionalism, & Professional Identity
    • Communication, Compassion, & Collaborative Care (written, electronic, HIT, and verbal communication)
    • Healthcare Quality & Patient Safety
    • Health Care Systems & the Business of Medicine
    • Patient Care
    • Societal Issues
      • Nutrition/Physical Activity
      • Education/Health Literacy/Poverty
      • Substance Abuse (including tobaccco, opioids, alcohol, illicit drugs, and prescription medication)
      • Family and Interpersonal Violence
      • Health Disparities/Discrimination/Cultural Competence/Access to Care
  • What are EPAs?

    Core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for Entering Residency

    Published by AAMC in 2014, the EPAs include 13 activities that all medical students should be able to perform upon entering residency, regardless of their future career specialty. Entrustable Professional Activities were chosen as the framework for the guide because they offer a practical approach to assessing competence in real-world settings and impact both learners and patients. We use the EPAs at Quillen to assess our students' level of competence for practice.

    EPA Tool Kit Full Summary

    EPA Faculty and Learners' Guide

  • How to Write Learning Objectives


    Constructing Well-Written Learning Objectives

    Learning objectives are clear, concise statements that define the expected goal of a curriculum, course, lesson, or activity and describe observable skills or knowledge that will be acquired by a student as a result of instruction.

    Learning objectives should be specific, observable, and measurable. They should complete the phrase, “By the end of this activity, the learner will be able to…”

    Key features of learning objectives:

    1. Begins with an action verb that specifies the desired level of learning by the student.
      1. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to identify different levels of learning and verbs that reflect the level. 
      2. Avoid terms like appreciate/understand/know/learn because they are vague and not measurable.
    2. Indentifies the subject to be learned. 
      1. What is the topic or content of the session? 
    3. Focused on student performance. 
      1. The focus should always be on what the student will be able to do, not the instructor.

    Practical Tips: 

    • There are usually 10-20 learning objectives for each course/clerkship.
      • If you have many more than that, should some of those be session objectives?
      • Each course objective should be matched to one or more institutional educational objectives (IEOs). Dr. Click or Aneida Skeens can help course directors with this.
    • There are usually 3-5 learning objectives per class session/didactic/activity.
      • Each session objective should be matched to one or more course/clerkship objectives. Link your session objectives to a course objective when you write them. This will make things much easier for course directors later!
      • Clerkships need learning objectives for individual didactics, simulations, and sub-rotations and/or major experiences of the clerkship (e.g., ambulatory care, in-patient wards, specialty rotations).
    • A well-written learning objective from a class session could stand alone as a short-answer question on an assessment.
      • Could you put your learning objective on a test and a student respond to it?

    The following questions will help you determine whether you have written an effective learning objective: 

    • Is the objective specific? 
    • Is the objective measurable or observable?
    • Is the objective aligned with the broader outcomes of the course/program?
    • Is the objective realistic and achievable for students?
    • Is the objective time bound--does it identify a clear timeframe for achievement?

    Examples of well-written learning objectives:

    By the end of this activity, the learner will be able to: 

    • Identify clinical, laboratory and imaging studies that indicate severity of disease.
    • Explain mechanisms of action and risks associated with inhaled corticosteroids.
    • Describe contributing factors in foodborne illness outbreaks.
    • Compare the functions of the key parts of the community health infrastructure.
    • Discriminate between three similar skin rashes.
    • Identify a patient’s medical needs and assess barriers in accessing care.
    • Generate a hypothesis and develop an appropriate methodology/study design for a scholarly project in collaboration with a mentor.
    • Demonstrate appropriate infection control measures while caring for patients.
    • Prioritize the issues in the problem list and generate a differential diagnosis for each active problem.