Connecting Program Goals to Individual Courses
Once your program goals are written the next stage is to determine which courses are contributing to the attainment of each. The best method for making these connections is using a mapping matrix like the one below.
| Course 1 | Course 2 | Course 3 | Course x | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goal 1 | ||||
| Goal 2 | ||||
| Goal 3 |
Begin by creating a table that lists the program goals in the left column and the courses in your program across the top. The courses should be listed in the prescribed order that students take them, with your elective courses last. Once you have the chart completed, give a copy to each faculty member in your department and have them indicate which courses are contributing to the attainment of which goal and the depth of coverage using the following scale:
- 0 or blank: no emphasis or coverage
- 1: Topics are only introduced to produce "awareness"
- 2: Topics are introduced and further developed or reinforced to produce "working knowledge"
- 3: Topics are fully introduced, developed or reinforced throughout the course to produce "application knowledge"
This strategy not only helps you check to see if the goals are covered, but also helps identify which courses would be best to target for data collection during the program assessment process. That is, the courses that list the amount of coverage at a level 3 are usually the ones where you can focus some of your data collection efforts.