Curricular mapping is a tool used by instructional designers, curriculum developers, and assessment specialists to examine the connection between course or program objectives (or outcomes) and curricular content. The primary purpose of curricular mapping is to ensure that objectives are fully covered in a course/program. Lack of coverage, overlapping coverage, and disconnects between objectives and content will be illustrated by the mapping process. Varying levels (course, program, institution) and types of data can be examined in this way. Example types of data include objectives, outcomes, standards, coverage methods, coverage hours, coverage levels, intended coverage, actual coverage, learned coverage, etc.

Ideally, the mapping process will take place as a program or course is being designed. However, faculty and administrators of many non-education degree programs are not fully aware of instructional design and do not understand its benefits. For curricula that have already been developed and implemented, mapping not only will provide valuable information to make improvements, it also will highlight the importance of traditional instructional design.

Once a mapping schema has been developed, the next consideration is developing (or choosing) the mechanism for data capture. Using or creating the right tool will save time when analyzing the mapped data. The author will discuss the mapping process of a US higher education program and depict and describe the automated analysis tools developed using standard desktop software. Sample results of the analyses will be revealed to demonstrate the program improvement capabilities of curricular mapping.