Map Assignments to Outcomes
Course Maps
When it comes time to explore how well your students are learning, it is very important to design assignments that best give you that information. Think of these assignments as lenses - customize each one to reveal whichever aspect of learning interests you. If you have already created student learning outcomes (and if you haven't, best to do that now), make sure these assignments are matched to the content and skills described in those outcomes, paying particular attention to the level of learning: "spit/synthesis/speculate" or Bloom's Taxonomy Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching (2019).
For example:
- If your learning outcome states that students will recall factual information, you might assess that through a fill-in-the-blank question on a test.
- If your learning outcome states that students will apply concepts, you might assess that through a problem set or reading response.
- And if your learning outcome states that students will design something new, you might assess that through a presentation or piece of artwork.
When you decide on which assessment will test which learning outcome, it's time to create a course map.