Curriculum Mapping: Unique Strategies for Collecting, Visualizing, and Analyzing Data

Amy Cohen-Callow, MSSW, PhD, University of Maryland

Rebecca Mauldin, MSW, ABD, University of Houston

Rachel Imboden, MSW, LSW, PhD Student, University of Maryland

• 900+ students• 169 faculty:

• 70 full-time faculty (8 professors, 26 associate professors, 13 assistant professors, 23 clinical instructors)

• 99 part-time faculty (68 adjunct and 28 field liaisons)

• Two Specializations• Macro• Clinical

• 6 Focus Areas• Aging• Behavioral Health

• Employee Assistance Program

• CASP (Community Action and Social Policy)• Families and Children• Health

• Child, adolescent, and family health

• Multiple sections

Reaffirmation Timeline

2008 EPAS (CSWE, 2008)

•Self study process began Summer, 2013

•December 1, 2016, Self study document to be submitted

Transition to 2015 EPAS

•Administrative extension granted Fall, 2015

Curriculum Mapping & Assessment

•Remapped 2015 from Fall, 2016 – Summer, 2017

•Assessment of 2008 and 2015 EPAS from Fall, 2014

2015 EPAS (CSWE, 2015)

•August 1, 2017 Self study Document submitted

Curriculum Map: Product

Aligning competencies or student learning outcomes with the teaching curriculum needed to foster the achievement of those outcomes (Hutchings, 2016).

Conceptual Framework: Learning Organization

• “A learning organization is skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge” (Garvin, para. 10, 1993)

• Universities tend not to practice organizational learning and knowledge management as they relate to the use of information for institutional improvement (Bauman, 2005)

Guided by Learning Organization Theory

To create a way to collect data to inform curriculum mapping and self reflection

Learning Organization Concepts Curriculum Mapping Process

Create and acquire data using inclusive process

Qualtrics

Share information with faculty in a transparent manner

Curriculum tableNetwork analysis

Reflect on data and make necessary modifications

Share visual representation Use as a spring board for discussion

Method: Mapping steps Plan

• Develop questions to be answered about curriculum

o Do we cover competencies?o Where are they covered and to what depth?o How do we teach them?o Are the 5 dimensions were covered?

• Decide which courses to map

o Generalist (6)

o Required clinical (11) and macro (11) specializations

• Decide how to collect data and engage faculty in the process

Map results

Communicate and interpret data

Implement changes (to be continued)

(Kelley, et al., (2008)

Qualtrics

Qualtrics

Qualtrics

Qualtrics Export: Raw Data

Qualtrics Export: Cleaned

Creating More Depth

PlanCollect

Data

Organize Data for

CSWE

Realized Needed

More Details

Re-Map and Share

A Simpler Example Three diversity curriculum principles

Subsumed under the competencies

• Competency 2: Diversity and Difference

o Principle 2: Students understand how their own frame of reference, personal biases, and values effect how they interact with clients and communities

• Competency 3: Human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice

o Principle 1a: Curriculum content will include history of oppression and social exclusion and theoretical frameworks that interpret this phenomenon

o Principle 1b: Courses will foster critical analysis of the implications of diversity for social work and social welfare with a primary focus on diversity issues

Curriculum Grid: No Emphasis

Foundation Map and Associated Principles: No Emphasis Network Map

Created with NetDraw (Borgatti, 2002)

Curriculum Grid: Emphasis

Foundation Map and Associated Principles: Network Map with Emphasis

Curriculum Grid Table format: No Emphasis (Jankowki, September 12, 2014)

Network Analysis: No Emphasis

Curriculum Grid: Emphasis

Network Analysis: Emphasis

Challenges Addressed

Goal: To add value to this time intensive process

Challenge What we did

Educating faculty on concepts: competencies, dimensions, scaffolding terminology

Used Qualtrics to define these

Working with large faculty creating inclusive process

Included faculty in process and simplified by use of Qualtrics

Analyzing and ensuring consistent communication of competency data

Presented with network analysis

But… Continuing Questions

How do we include all faculty and get the most accurate data when we have multiple sections and many instructors?

Possibly triangulate*:

• Faculty (measure of faculty perspective);

• Syllabi (measure of intended delivery),

• Students (measure of actual)

• Look at convergence between 1, 2, or 3

What is the best way to share with ALL faculty?

How do we make sure the process keeps moving now that self study is over?

*(Plaza, Draugalis, Slack, Skrepnek, & Sauer, 2007)

ReferenceArchambault, S. G., & Masunaga, J. (2015). Curriculum mapping as a strategic planning tool. Journal Of Library Administration, 55(6), 503-519.

Bauman, G.L. (2005). Promoting organizational learning in higher education to achieve equity in educational outcomes. New Directions for Higher Education, 131, 23 – 35.

Borgatti, S. P. (2002). NetDraw software for network visualization. Lexington, KY: Analytic Technologies.

Council on Social Work Education. (2008). Education policy and accreditation standards. Alexandria, CA: Council on Social Work Education.

Council on Social Work Education. (2015). Education policy and accreditation standards. Alexandria, CA: Council on Social Work Education.

Garvin, D. A. (1993). Building a Learning Organization. Harvard Business Review, 71,4, 78–91.

Hutchings, P. (January, 2016) Aligning Educational Outcomes and Practices. National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment

Kelley, K.A., McAuley, J.W., Wallace, L.J., & Frank, S.G., (2008)) Curricular mapping: Process and product. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education., 72, 7. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2630125/

Watts, L. & Hodgson, D. (2015) Whole Curriculum Mapping of Assessment: Cartographies of Assessment and Learning. Social Work Education, 34, 6, 682-699.

Jankowski, N. (September 12, 2014). Presentation by the National Institute for Learning Outcome Assessment. National Center for Learning Outcomes Retrieved: http://www.learningoutcomeassessment.org/Presentations/Mapping.pdf)

Plaza, C.M., Draugalis, J.R., Slack, M.K., Skrepnek, G.H., Sauer, K.A. (2007). Curriculum mapping in program assessment and evaluation. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 71, 2.

Conceptual Framework: Learning Organization Theory

• Currently• Systematic problem solving –

• Use data rather than guess work and assumptions• Use simple statistical tools to organize data and draw inferences• Constantly ask, “How do we know that’s true?”

• Transferring knowledge• Sharing information quickly, efficiently and broadly (Qualtrics’ definitions, grids

and network for layout) – share it and apply it.

• Measuring learning (do they know what competencies are, are they using them, what percentage of students becoming more competent growing?)

• To be Continued• Experimentation and Risk Taking

• Try out ideas – requires new ideas from within and outside of organization/risk taking

• Learning from others• Learn from past experience (organization memory)• Learn from others (benchmarking, studying other’s practice – other universities

and students/graduates as customers)