Taylor Institute

Curriculum Review Series #2

Curriculum Review:
Guiding Questions, Data
Sources & Planning
Patti Dyjur, PhD
Kim Grant, PhD
Frances Kalu, PhD
September 2019

1
Patti Dyjur, PhD, Educational Development Consultant
Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary

Kim Grant, PhD, Educational Development Consultant

Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary

Frances Kalu, PhD, Educational Development Consultant

Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary

This guide is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons — Attribution Non-
Commercial License 4.0 International (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits sharing and
adapting of the material, provided the original work is properly attributed (see recommended citation below),
any changes are clearly indicated, and the material is not used for commercial purposes.

September 2019
Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning
434 Collegiate Blvd NW
University of Calgary, Calgary, AB Canada T2N 1N4

Recommended Citation
Dyjur, P. , Grant, K., & Kalu, F. (2019). Curriculum review: Guiding questions, data sources &
planning. Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary: University of Calgary.

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Guiding Questions 2

Table of Contents
Guiding Questions ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Start Points for Drafting Guiding Questions ............................................................................................. 5
Data Sources to Inform Your Review ............................................................................................................ 8
Making Meaning of the OIA Data for Your Curriculum Review .................................................................. 10
Student Surveys .......................................................................................................................................... 12
Sample Student Survey Questions .......................................................................................................... 13
Creating a Curriculum Review Plan ............................................................................................................. 22
Example of a Curriculum Review Plan .................................................................................................... 23
Template for Creating a Curriculum Review Plan ................................................................................... 24
Curriculum Review Timeline Worksheet ................................................................................................ 25
References .................................................................................................................................................. 26

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Guiding Questions 3

 Guiding Questions
Definition

Guiding questions are critical questions or concerns that guide the curriculum review process (University
of Calgary, 2019). Similar to a research study, a curriculum review uses guiding questions to focus
inquiry on specific aspects of curriculum. You will not be able to investigate every facet of a curriculum,
so the guiding questions identify what you most want to explore in the review; these could range from
broad encompassing questions to specific curricular concerns.

NOTE: At least one guiding question must address a University of Calgary institutional priority related to
teaching and learning.

Importance of Guiding Questions

Guiding questions:
• Help you define your investigation
• Help identify what types of data to collect and can be used to write questions for
student and instructor surveys and focus groups
• Structure the findings section of the curriculum review report
• Inform the development of an action plan
• Form the foundation of the interim report

Your Curriculum Review report will include a section on the critical questions used to guide the
curriculum review process. You will probably have 3 – 5 questions that you address in your review. You
may be given one or more guiding questions from your Unit Lead or Associate Dean of Teaching and
Learning, so check to see if they have any standard questions you are expected to address in your
review.

Feedback on the Guiding Questions

While the Curriculum Review Committee is responsible for drafting the guiding questions, the Review
Team as a whole provides feedback and approves the final choice of guiding questions. Every project is
different, but you may also want to get feedback from students, advisory committees, and/or the dean,
department head, or associate dean of teaching and learning. You might elicit feedback at a department
meeting, through email, or other internal process.

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Guiding Questions 4

 Start Points for Drafting Guiding Questions

This list can provide a starting point of questions to guide a curriculum review process:

General questions:
• What are the strengths of the program?
• How are program-level learning outcomes (PLOs) addressed in specific courses of the program?
Are there any program-level learning outcomes that are not adequately addressed?
• Looking at the scope and sequence of the courses within the program, are there any gaps
and/or overlaps in learning outcomes? If so, where?

Accreditation:
• If your program has an external accrediting body, you might add guiding questions to fulfill their
requirements to allow you to complete both accreditation and the U of C’s curriculum review
process simultaneously.

Purpose of the program:

• How current is the program? What is being emphasized? Are we preparing graduates for
traditional and/or emerging roles?
• What careers do graduates of the program go on to have?
• How can we make the program more innovative?
• What is the right balance of discipline-specific courses and interdisciplinary courses to give
students a solid grounding in the discipline yet enhance their learning of broader perspectives?
What might a multidisciplinary approach look like?

Students:
• Who are our students?
• What do students want out of the program? What are their career goals?
• Why is there so much drop-off in registration after the introductory course? Why do students
decide not to continue in the discipline?
• What aspects of the program structure are problematic for students, and how might we address
them?
• Which of our courses are required by students in other faculties/ programs?
• To what extent are our courses meeting the needs of non-major students?
• What percentage of alumni go on to graduate studies at our institution?

Student learning experiences:

• To what extent do teaching and learning activities across the program scaffold student learning,
building it from an introductory level to more complex concepts?
• What teaching and learning activities are currently being used? Is there sufficient diversity?
• What high-impact educational practices (Kuh, 2008) do we have in our program, and where are
they located? Do we need to any or distribute them differently across the program?
• What aspects of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) do we excel at? What
results are we dissatisfied with, and how might we address them?

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Guiding Questions 5

 • How might we plan experiential learning opportunities for students? What would that look like?
How would it be scaffolded and assessed?
• How are we connecting theory to practice? What improvements should be made in this area?

Student assessment:
• To what extent do student assessment strategies across the program support and capture
student learning?
• What student assessment strategies are used in the program, and do we need greater diversity
in these strategies?
• What are the DFW rates (grades of D or F, withdrawals) for the program? What is the rate to
completion? If the statistics are not reasonable, what measures should we take to improve?
• How do we incorporate formative feedback across the program?
• Are our policies around (grading, deferrals, etc.) effective, or do we need to set/ examine
specific policies?

Prerequisites:
• Do we have the right prerequisites for upper-level courses?
• Are more prerequisite courses needed for students to be successful in upper-level courses?
Less?
• Is a lack of prerequisite courses in certain upper-level courses problematic for students in terms
of their success in certain upper-level courses? Do they have the necessary understanding in
order to succeed in these courses?

Consistency across sections of a course:

• What approaches are different instructors taking in multiple sections of a course? How
consistent are course outcomes, student learning experiences, and student assessments? Are
there any issues, especially in courses that are prerequisites for other courses?
• How much flexibility should we give different instructors in multiple sections of a course to bring
their own expertise and research interests to the learning experience?

Content coverage:
• Are students getting opportunities to acquire foundational knowledge in the field?
• Is there an appropriate balance between foundational knowledge/ content and other curricular
concerns such as critical thinking and communication?
• To what extent does the program facilitate student learning of (writing skills, critical thinking,
professionalism, innovation, research skills or other initiative or strategy being targeted)? How
can this learning be enhanced?

Core courses:
• Do we have the right core (required) courses in the program?
• How are the content and theories in core courses built upon in subsequent courses? How are
we scaffolding student learning throughout the program?
• Is there adequate flexibility in the program to allow students to take courses of interest to them,
such as the embedded Sustainability or Mental Wellbeing and Resilience Certificate?

Program structure:
• Where are the bottlenecks in the program and how do we resolve them?

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Guiding Questions 6

 • What courses have high percentages of failure rates and/or withdrawal?
• What courses are out of sequence or offered in the wrong term?
• Who is graduating from our program, and who isn’t? Why do students transfer out of the
program?

Intended and Perceived Curriculum:

• How effective are instructors at conveying course expectations to students? What is the
difference between the intended curriculum and what students actually learn (the perceived
curriculum)?

Academic integrity:
• How do students learn about academic integrity? Are we doing enough and the right things in
this area?
• How do we help students who are struggling?

Areas of Emphasis:
• Do we concentrate on the learning experience in service courses that have students from all
faculties (for example, first-year tutorials) or dedicate more resources to advanced courses that
have more of our majors?
• Should writing-intensive courses be at the 200-level or throughout the program?

Faculty/ department and institutional priorities:

• How does our program align with graduate attributes, at the faculty and/or institutional level?
• Does our program align with strategic priorities?
• How are Indigenous perspectives being incorporated into the program in terms of Indigenous
pedagogies and/or content?
• Are there any new or emerging priorities or initiatives that we should examine as part of our
review; for example:
o How do we enhance mental health and wellness in our students and staff?
o What are our priorities regarding technology integration into teaching and learning?
o What are our priorities regarding the internationalization strategy?
o How is experiential learning enacted in the program and what opportunities exist to
further incorporate it?

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Guiding Questions 7

 Data Sources to Inform Your Review

Various sources of data can be used to inform decisions made during the curriculum review process at
the University of Calgary. In addition to the mandatory data sources, you might want to rely on your
disciplinary research strengths.

For each guiding question you will gather data from at least one source. If the data are readily available,
there is no need to do further data collection. If not, determine what is realistic given practical
constraints (usually time and money).

Mandatory Data Collection:

According to the Quality Assurance Handbook Curriculum Reviews (2019), data collection from certain
sources is mandatory:

1. Standard Report from the Office of Institutional Analysis (OIA)

a. Demographic information, such as number of students, DFW rates, attrition
b. NSSE engagement indicators and responses (%) for specific questions, if applicable
2. Curriculum mapping data
3. Student feedback (survey, focus group, etc.)

In addition, a review team can collect other data as needed to inform their review.

Other Potential Sources of Data:

There are many potential sources of data which could inform a curriculum review. The classification
scheme that follows has been adapted from Worthen, Borg and White (1993), and is not exhaustive.

1. Data collected directly from individuals associated with the program, including students, alumni,
and instructors:
a. Self-reports: attitudes, opinions, satisfaction, behavior, or history
i. Surveys or questionnaires: administered on paper, orally, by telephone, by
computer, or in person, eg., annual student exit survey, satisfaction survey
ii. Interviews, eg., exit interviews
iii. Focus groups
b. Teaching and learning artifacts
i. Quantitative student performance indicators, eg., test results, grades on
assignments
ii. Assignments: papers, essays, discussion board posts, portfolios (including digital
portfolios) and other indicators of student learning
iii. Learning activities: simulations, debates, presentations in person or online
iv. Personal records such as journals or logs
2. Data collected from existing organizational information or formal repositories or databases

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 8

 a. Records
i. Standard Report from the Office of Institutional Analysis
ii. Program documentation
iii. Past curriculum and unit reviews
b. Curriculum mapping data (collected from instructors)
c. Canadian Graduate and Professional Student Survey (CGPSS)
3. Data collected through unobtrusive measures
a. Environmental scan or an examination of similar programs across the province or across
Canada
b. Literature review
4. Data collected by an independent (external) reviewer, often associated with accreditation
a. Open-ended observations
b. Reports and reviews which may include other data collection methods
5. Other data sources as identified by the review lead
a. Current or potential employer data

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 9

 Making Meaning of the OIA Data for Your Curriculum Review

Some points to keep in mind:

• The same data sets are drawn for each curriculum review committee. It is up to your committee
to determine which data sets are of interest/importance for your context. OIA uses a standard
data template designed by the VP Teaching and Learning.
• Different types of data are collected on different time frames, so remember to check the dates
on each page of the report. Some of the data may not be as current as you’d like, but the OIA
will report on the most current data they have.
OIA reports data based on snapshots:
1. Student enrolments reflect the December 1st snapshot.
2. Course grades are run mid-June.
3. Course data including section enrolees, sections, and course enrolees reflect
snapshots as following: June 1st for Spring term, August 1st for Summer term,
December 1st for Fall term, and April 1st for Winter term.
• The data can be used to respond to some of your guiding questions OR it may be used to
generate some guiding questions.
• Data are neither good nor bad, but surprising results can be good conversation starters.
• Context is everything. You are the best people to interpret your data.
• NSSE data are collected every three years and reports on the experiences of first year students
and fourth year students in your program (if applicable).

Questions you may want to pose based on:

Program-based Data
• How are our retention rates? Are there any noticeable trends in that data?
• How are our graduation and time-to-completion rates? Any surprises or concerns?
• How are the overall numbers of degrees granted by our program? What are the trends?

NSSE Survey Data

• What are we doing well?
• What stands out to us? Any surprises? Could these surprises help shape our guiding questions
and/or data collection?
• How do our NSSE results compare to our overall faculty results (if applicable)?
• What trends are evident in our department’s NSSE scores?
• If our NSSE scores are based on low numbers of respondents, how much do we think that these
trends reflect the overall program?
• Where do we see the biggest changes in NSSE results over time?
• What 2-3 areas do we want to work on over the next few years?

Alberta Graduate Outcomes Survey Report

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 10

 • Given that this data is designed to provide institutional-level information, is there anything
significant that we can infer about our program?
• What do the data tell us about our program?

Student Data
• What trends do we notice in our total number of undergraduate students by year?
• Does the comparison of full-time and part-time student numbers provide us with any food for
thought?
• Does the comparison of enrolment by gender raise any questions?
• Does the information about numbers of international students provide any insights into our
current program?
• What do we notice about our grade distribution trends? Are there any possible guiding
questions raised by this information? Is there anything we need to discuss as a faculty or
department?
• What trends do we see in our grade distribution data (by numbers and/or by percentages)?
• What do we notice about our DFW (grades of D and F, and W - withdrawals) rates? What trends
do we see in this information? Are there any surprises in this information?
• As this is a program-level review, are there any important observations from our course level
DFW information? For example, are students able to succeed in courses that have pre-
requisites?

Whole Report
• Based on the data in the report, what are we doing well in this program?
• What do we want to know more about, and how do we find out? For example, if we want to
know more about high attrition rates, we might want to interview students who have
transferred to other programs.
• What data should we take back to all faculty for discussion/interpretation?

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 11

 Student Surveys

It is mandatory to collect student data in some form, such as a student survey, focus group, or
interviews. The suggestions in this section are in the form of surveys, but they are readily adaptable as
needed for your data collection method and purposes. If you decide to do a student survey, you may
want to use Qualtrics, an online survey tool. The University of Calgary has an institutional license,
making it free of charge to use it for your curriculum review. For more information about creating a
Qualtrics account, go to:

https://oia.ucalgary.ca/qualtrics-login

You are allowed to collect student survey data without applying for ethics approval, as long as you are
using the results for program evaluation purposes. More information about exemptions from ethics
review can be found at:

http://www.ucalgary.ca/research/files/research/150130-cfreb_research_exempt_from_review.pdf

If you think you may want to use the data for other purposes, such as dissemination (conference
presentations and/or articles), please seek guidance from the Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board:

https://www.ucalgary.ca/research/researchers/ethics-compliance/cfreb

Purposes of the Survey

As with any survey, the purpose of the survey will determine what questions you ask of students. Some
groups want to know general student perceptions of the program, while others would like to know
students’ future career goals, satisfaction with the program, which courses they found problematic, or
the likelihood that they will apply for graduate school.

In the next section we offer some samples of student survey questions as a starting point. Please adopt
or adapt the ones that will be useful for you and create new ones as needed to gather the data that will
be most helpful for your review.

Instructions for a Student Survey

Please adapt these instructions as needed for your survey:

Welcome to the Student Survey for [program] majors. You are receiving this survey because you are in
your third or fourth year of studies. Your feedback is very valuable to us as we review the [name of
program]. The information you provide will help us improve the student learning experience of
[program] majors.

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 12

The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. Your responses are completely confidential and
your name will never be associated with your responses or comments. No personal identifying
information will be shared. Only aggregate data will be used for program evaluation purposes.

Sample Student Survey Questions

With grateful thanks to Dr. Chris Sears, Psychology Department, for many of the questions listed below:

General Questions

I will be graduating in:

o Fall 2018
o Spring 2019
o Fall 2019
o Spring 2020

Did you complete 75% or more of your [program] courses at the University of Calgary?
o Yes
o No

Please estimate your overall GPA for the fall 2017 and winter 2018 terms combined:
(text response)

Did you work full-time or part-time during the past academic year?
o Yes
o No

If so, how many hours per week did you work during the past academic year?
(text response)

Please indicate the degree you will receive at graduation:

o (List potential degrees, including Honours)
o
o

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 13

Student Satisfaction Questions

Please rate your satisfaction with your learning experiences in [faculty or department] on each of these
items (matrix table):

Very Satisfied Somewhat Not Somewhat Dissatisfied Very

Satisfied Satisfied Sure Dissatisfied Dissatisfied
Variety of o o o o o o o
courses
available
Level of o o o o o o o
academic
challenge
Quality of o o o o o o o
teaching in
lectures
Quality of o o o o o o o
teaching in labs
Opportunities o o o o o o o
for research
experience
Career o o o o o o o
information

Please rate your overall satisfaction with your learning experiences in the [program name]:
o Very satisfied
o Satisfied
o Somewhat satisfied
o Not sure
o Somewhat dissatisfied
o Dissatisfied
o Very dissatisfied

How likely are you to recommend the [name of program] at the University of Calgary to others?
o Very likely
o Likely
o Somewhat likely
o Not sure
o Somewhat unlikely
o Unlikely
o Very unlikely

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 14

Course Availability

After starting the [program name] major, how frequently did you experience difficulties fitting [program
name] courses into your academic schedule?
o Never
o Rarely
o Sometime
o Often
o All the time

Student Perceptions About the Program

Please rate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements:

Strongly Agree Somewhat Not Somewhat Disagree Strongly

Agree Agree Sure Disagree Disagree
There are too many o o o o o o o
students in [program
name] courses
I was able to take all o o o o o o o
the [program name]
courses I wanted
There should be more o o o o o o o
[program name]
courses offered in the
evenings
There should be more o o o o o o o
[program name]
courses offered in
block week
There should be more o o o o o o o
[program name]
courses offered online
It is easy to get an A in o o o o o o o
[program name]
courses
I am proud to be a o o o o o o o
[program name] major
The volume of work in o o o o o o o
the program has been
manageable
I have found the o o o o o o o
program to be
intellectually
stimulating

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 15

Please comment on any aspect of the above.
(text box)

Why did you select [program name] as a major?

(text box)

Prerequisites

Core courses are intended to teach essential concepts and theories that are needed for success in
higher-level courses. In your experience, to what extent have the following required core courses
adequately prepared you for success in higher-level courses? If you have not yet taken a particular core
course, select N/A

Well Prepared Somewhat Not Somewhat Unprepared Not at all N/A

Prepared Prepared Sure Unprepared Prepared
XXXX 211 o o o o o o o o
XXXX 231 o o o o o o o o
XXXX 301 o o o o o o o o
XXXX 331 o o o o o o o o
Please comment on prerequisite courses and how well they prepared you for subsequent courses:
(text box)

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 16

Program-level Learning Outcomes

The following table shows the broad expectations for student learning in the program. How well do you
think the course work that you have completed so far has helped you to learn these knowledge and
skills?

A Lot Somewhat A Little Not at Not

Bit all Sure
Develop a knowledge base of theories and o o o o o
concepts within their primary area of
study.
Use different approaches to solving o o o o o
problems using well established ideas and
techniques within the discipline.
Locate and critically evaluate qualitative o o o o o
information.
Locate and critically evaluate quantitative o o o o o
information.
Formulate and communicate oral o o o o o
arguments based on information,
theories, and concepts.
Formulate and communicate arguments in o o o o o
writing based on information, theories,
and concepts.
Apply knowledge and skills in a variety of o o o o o
contexts, including situations that are new
to the student.
Conceptualize, design, and implement o o o o o
research for the generation of new
knowledge or understanding within the
discipline.

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 17

Effectiveness of Learning Experiences

Please indicate the extent to which the following experiences have contributed to your learning in the
[name of program]:

To a To a A little Not at N/A

great moderate bit all
extent extent
First-year courses o o o o o
Seminar-based courses and experiences o o o o o
Laboratory-based courses and experiences o o o o o
Studio-based courses o o o o o
Co-op experiences, internships, or clinical o o o o o
placements
Community-based projects or service o o o o o
learning
Writing-intensive courses o o o o o
Undergraduate research projects o o o o o
Capstone courses and projects o o o o o
Study abroad program or intercultural o o o o o
learning experiences
Integrative studies and experiences that o o o o o
transcend disciplinary boundaries

Honours Program

Are you in the honours program and enrolled in the honours thesis seminar?
o Yes
o No

Was your honours thesis supervisor a regular faculty member in the [department, faculty] or an adjunct
faculty member?
o Regular faculty member
o Adjunct faculty member
o Not sure

Please rate how satisfied you are with your honours thesis supervisor:
o Very satisfied
o Satisfied
o Somewhat satisfied
o Not sure
o Somewhat dissatisfied
o Dissatisfied
o Very dissatisfied

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 18

Please rate how satisfied you are with the research experience you acquired as an honours student:
o Very satisfied
o Satisfied
o Somewhat satisfied
o Not sure
o Somewhat dissatisfied
o Dissatisfied
o Very dissatisfied

Please rate how useful the honours thesis seminar was to you:
o Very useful
o Useful
o Somewhat useful
o Not sure
o Somewhat useless
o Useless
o Very useless

Please rate how useful each of the following honours seminar activities was to you:

Very Useful Somewhat Not Somewhat Useless Very

Useful Useful Sure Useless Useless
Scholarship o o o o o o o
information sessions
Graduate school o o o o o o o
information sessions
Giving presentations o o o o o o o
Watching other o o o o o o o
students’ presentations
Presentation tips and o o o o o o o
advice
Receiving feedback on o o o o o o o
my presentations
Advice on writing the o o o o o o o
honours thesis
Peer feedback on my o o o o o o o
honours thesis
Instructor feedback on o o o o o o o
my honours thesis
Meeting as a group o o o o o o o
throughout the year

Please rate your overall satisfaction with your honours thesis experience:
o Very satisfied
o Satisfied

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 19

 o Somewhat satisfied
o Not sure
o Somewhat dissatisfied
o Dissatisfied
o Very dissatisfied

Do you have any other comments about your honours thesis experience that you would like to share
with us?
(text box)

Future Plans

Please select one of the following statements to best describe your situation in September [next
academic year]:
o I will be starting a graduate program in [program name]
o I will be starting a graduate program in [other program associated closely]
o I will be starting law school
o I will be starting a graduate program not listed above
o I will be studying in a different undergraduate program
o I will be working full-time
o I hope to be working full-time, but I don’t have a job waiting
o I will be traveling most of next year and not working full-time or going to school
o I am not sure what I will be doing
o None of the above (If you select this option, please respond to the next question

If you chose “None of the above” for the previous question, please tell us what your plans are for
September [next academic year]
(text box)

Do you plan on returning to school (university, college, SAIT, etc.) sometime in the next 5 years?
o No, I do not play on returning to school in the next 5 years
o Yes, I will be a full-time student next year
o Yes, I will be a part-time student next year
o Yes, I plan on returning to school in the next 1-3 years
o Yes, I plan on returning to school in the next 4-5 years

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 20

Concluding Questions

In your opinion, what are the strengths of the [name of program]?

(text box)

Thinking about the program as a whole, if you could KEEP one thing that was most impactful in terms of
your learning, what would that be?
(text box)

Thinking about the program as a whole, if you could CHANGE one thing that would be most impactful
for your learning, what would that be?
(text box)

Do you have any final comments about the [name of program] you would like to share with us? We
greatly value your thoughts and opinions.
(text box)

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Data Sources to Inform Your Review 21

 Creating a Curriculum Review Plan

Once you have determined your guiding questions, you can start to create a plan for data collection,
analysis, action planning, and writing the report. For each guiding question, you will use at least one
data source to inform it. If the necessary data are already collected or available, there is no need to
conduct further data collection. For example, the Standard Report from the Office of Institutional
Analysis includes several years of demographic information, which could be sufficient to answer some
questions. Other guiding questions can be better informed from multiple perspectives, such as students
and instructors.

Some considerations when creating a curriculum review plan

When creating your review plan, you might want to consider the following:

• What data have already been gathered that you can use to inform your guiding questions?
• What types of data can inform multiple guiding questions?
• How can we involve multiple perspectives in both data collection and analysis?
• How can we invite student perspectives in the curriculum review plan?
• What is reasonable given practical constraints (usually time and money)?
• How can we leverage existing processes and committees to get the work done? For example, is
there an undergraduate curriculum committee that could provide feedback on program-level
learning outcomes (PLOs), analyze data, etc.?
• If you think you might want to disseminate some of the results, have you received ethics
approval or a certificate of exemption, as advised by Research Services?
• Have we built in a bit of flexibility to accommodate unforeseen circumstances?

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Creating a Curriculum Review Plan 22

 Example of a Curriculum Review Plan
Below are three examples of how guiding questions can be used to create a curriculum review plan.

Guiding Question Rationale Data Sources Collection Strategy Analysis Strategy Notes
(Who, when) (Who, how)
Do we have the right DFW rates are high in Curriculum mapping Mapping workshop in Curriculum data in Combine instructor
prerequisites for some of our upper- Instructor survey November, all due in aggregate charts survey questions
upper-level courses? level courses. Also, Student exit survey Dec. about prerequisites
Are more comments from the Program docs All faculty invited to 2 with the curriculum
prerequisite courses student exit survey OIA Standard Report Review Lead to data analysis mapping exercise.
needed for students indicate some implement student discussions. Invite
to be successful in duplication in the survey in Feb/ March student council to
upper-level courses? program. participate.
Less?
How are we Our National Survey Curriculum mapping Ask instructors to Curriculum data Add a couple of
incorporating group of Student identify courses with about group work to questions on group
work into the Engagement (NSSE) Instructor survey group work, and what be presented in work to the
program? scores are low in type aggregate charts. curriculum mapping
Collaborative Student survey All faculty invited to 2 exercise and
Learning: Worked Ask students about data analysis instructor/ student
with other students their experiences discussions. Invite surveys.
on course projects or with group work student council to
assignments. participate.
How do we Not only is this an Instructor and/or Close to the end of Create a Mental Customize curriculum
enhance mental institutional priority, student focus groups term (fall and winter) Health and Wellness mapping to include
health and students and staff Subcommittee with timing of midterms
wellness in our have mentioned Student survey students and faculty, and major
workload issues, to analyze the data assignments.
students and staff?
especially around Curriculum mapping and come up with an
exam time. action plan. Discuss
recommendations at
a faculty retreat.

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Creating a Curriculum Review Plan 23

 Template for Creating a Curriculum Review Plan
Guiding Question Rationale Data Sources Collection Strategy Analysis Strategy Notes
(Who, when) (Who, how

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Creating a Curriculum Review Plan 24

 Curriculum Review Timeline Worksheet
Sept Oct Nov Dec. Jan. Feb March April May June July Aug
Initiate CR
– set up review lead and team
Review previous action plan
Create CR plan/timeline
Communicate CR process to
all academic staff
Write guiding questions
Choose data collection
strategies
Create a CR plan
Revisit program-level learning
outcomes
Write/ revise course outcomes
Orientation to curriculum
mapping
Do curriculum mapping
Gather student/other data
Literature review and/or
environmental scan
Collate/distribute data
Data analysis
Draft action plan
Write the CR report
Seek feedback from all
academic staff
Submit report to Unit
Lead/Dean (inc. Grad Studies)
Submit report to VPTL
Submit Exec. Sum. and Action
Plan to TLC of GFC
Attend TLC for discussion and
feedback

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | Creating a Curriculum Review Plan 25

 References

Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-impact educational practices: A brief overview. Retrieved from

http://www.aacu.org/leap/hip.cfm

University of Calgary. (2019). Quality assurance curriculum review handbook. Retrieved from
https://www.ucalgary.ca/provost/sites/default/files/teams/1/Curriculum%20Review%20Handb
ook%20Final%20-%20GFC%20Approved%20Jan%202019.pdf

Worthen, B., Borg, W., & White, K. (1993). Measurement and evaluation in schools: A practical
guide. New York: Longman.

Dyjur, Grant & Kalu | References 26