Step 2: Map Courses & Curriculum

After establishing your program’s PLOs (Step 1), your next task is to map out the courses and curriculum within your program that help students develop those skills. Creating this map, or curriculum matrix, will help you identify which courses might serve as useful points for PLO assessment.

First, you will need to assemble a master list of all of the courses within your program that fulfill major requirements. Then, for each course, you will need to determine which PLO(s) are introduced, practiced, or demonstrated:

Introduced (I) – Students are introduced to the PLO and build a preliminary understanding of the skill by being exposed to examples or engaging in some preparatory activities

Practiced (P) – Students practice the PLO by engaging in learning activities and coursework that exercise the skill

Demonstrated (D) – Students demonstrate the PLO by generating final products that require mastery of the skill

In the end, your curriculum matrix should look similar to this:

Examples:

Additional Resources:

• Sample curriculum matrix: Undergraduate | Graduate

• Blank template

Once you have finished mapping out your course curriculum, the next step is to make your assessment plan (Step 3).