Curriculum Map Template (Constructive Alignment)

Programme curriculum map: PLOs, introduce-develop-master matrix, CLO to activity and assessment alignment, assessment load, gap analysis, review plan

EducationStandardConstructive alignment (Biggs, 1996)curriculum mapUpdated Oct 29, 2026

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How to use: Use it when designing or reviewing a programme so every outcome is taught, practised and assessed. Fill the programme learning outcomes first, then ask each course lead for their row. The main pitfall is mapping the handbook instead of what courses actually teach and assess.

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Curriculum Map: [Programme name]

Curriculum map template that traces programme learning outcomes to course learning outcomes, teaching activities and assessments, following the idea of constructive alignment described by John Biggs. It covers the outcome statements, an introduce-develop-master matrix, course-level alignment, a gap and overload analysis and a review plan. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example.

Document control

Field	Value
Document ID	[CMAP-2026-002]
Programme	[BSc Environmental Data Science]
Award level	[Bachelor's degree, level per your national qualifications framework]
Outcomes version	[PLO set approved YYYY-MM-DD]
Programme lead	[@programme-lead]
Contributors	[Course leads: @name, @name]
Version	[0.1]
Status	[Draft / In review / Approved / Under periodic review]
Next review	YYYY-MM-DD
Classification	[Internal]
Last updated	YYYY-MM-DD

Approvals

Role	Name	Decision	Date
Programme lead	[@name]	[Approved]	YYYY-MM-DD
Programme committee or quality office	[@name]	[Approved / Changes requested]	YYYY-MM-DD
Student representative	[@name]	[Consulted]	YYYY-MM-DD

Revision history

Version	Date	Author	Change summary
0.1	YYYY-MM-DD	[@programme-lead]	First map from course leads' returns
0.2	YYYY-MM-DD	[@programme-lead]	Example: PLO-5 assessment added to EDS230 after gap review

Constructive alignment in brief
Programme learning outcomes
Programme matrix: introduce, develop, master
Course-level alignment
Assessment load by year
Gap and overlap analysis
Review plan
Glossary and references
Standard and licence note

1. Constructive alignment in brief

Constructive alignment means that intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessment tasks are designed together. Outcomes are written with verbs that say what students will do; activities give students practice in doing it; assessments ask them to show it, and grading judges how well they did. The map makes these links visible across a whole programme, so the team can see where an outcome is taught but never assessed, assessed but never taught, or crowded into one course.

The diagram shows the chain this template traces, from programme outcomes down to the evidence students produce.

2. Programme learning outcomes

On successful completion of the programme, graduates will be able to:

ID	Outcome	External reference
PLO-1 (Example)	Explain how physical, biological and human factors interact in environmental systems	[Framework or professional body reference]
PLO-2 (Example)	Write reproducible code to acquire, clean, analyse and visualise environmental data	[Reference]
PLO-3 (Example)	Select and apply statistical and spatial methods, and justify the choice	[Reference]
PLO-4 (Example)	Communicate findings to specialist and non-specialist audiences in writing and speech	[Reference]
PLO-5 (Example)	Work ethically and collaboratively, including responsible handling of data	[Reference]

3. Programme matrix: introduce, develop, master

Key: I introduced, D developed, M mastered, A assessed.

Course	Year	PLO-1	PLO-2	PLO-3	PLO-4	PLO-5
EDS101 Environmental Systems (Example)	1	I, A			I	I
EDS120 Programming for Data (Example)	1		I, A			I
EDS210 Statistics for Environmental Data (Example)	2		D	I, A	D
EDS230 Geospatial Analysis (Example)	2	D	D, A	D, A
EDS310 Field Research Project (Example)	3	D, A	D	D	D, A	D, A
EDS390 Capstone (Example)	3	M, A	M, A	M, A	M, A	M, A
Assessed in (count)		3	3	3	2	2

4. Course-level alignment

4.1 Course: [EDS210 Statistics for Environmental Data] (Example)

CLO	Course learning outcome	PLO	Teaching and learning activity	Assessment
CLO-210-1	Describe and visualise a data set in a reproducible notebook	PLO-2	Weekly lab with worked notebooks	Problem sets
CLO-210-2	Choose a suitable test or model for a stated question and justify it	PLO-3	Case discussions comparing methods	Exam
CLO-210-3	Fit and check a linear model on field data	PLO-3	Guided lab with real monitoring data	Lab report
CLO-210-4	Report a result with an estimate and its uncertainty in plain language	PLO-4	Peer review of draft summaries	Lab report

Assessment	Weight	CLOs	Feedback timing
Problem sets (5) (Example)	20%	CLO-210-1	Within 1 week
Lab report (Example)	30%	CLO-210-3, CLO-210-4	Within 3 weeks
Exam (Example)	50%	CLO-210-2	After results release
Total	100%

Plan the exam with the Assessment Blueprint template (education/assessment-blueprint), and describe tasks and criteria with education/assignment and education/rubric.

5. Assessment load by year

Year and term	Courses	Summative components	Weeks with two or more deadlines
Year 1, term 1 (Example)	EDS101, EDS120	4 (2 per course)	[Week numbers]
Year 2, term 1 (Example)	EDS210, EDS230	5 (EDS210: 3, EDS230: 2)	[Week numbers]
Year 3 (Example)	EDS310, EDS390	4 (2 per course)	[Week numbers]

6. Gap and overlap analysis

ID	Finding	Evidence	Proposed change	Owner	By
GAP-01 (Example)	PLO-5 is not developed in Year 2	Blank PLO-5 cells for EDS210 and EDS230 in section 3	Add a data-ethics review step to the EDS230 project, assessed	[@course-lead-230]	YYYY-MM-DD
GAP-02 (Example)	PLO-4 is assessed only in Year 3	PLO-4 assessed in EDS310 and EDS390 only	Assess the plain-language summary in the EDS210 lab report (CLO-210-4) explicitly	[@course-lead-210]	YYYY-MM-DD
GAP-03 (Example)	Data cleaning taught at the same level in EDS120 and EDS230	Course lead returns	Teach general cleaning in EDS120 only; EDS230 builds on it with spatial data	[@programme-lead]	YYYY-MM-DD
[GAP-NN]	[Finding]	[Evidence]	[Change]	[@owner]	YYYY-MM-DD

7. Review plan

Item	Plan
Review cycle	Example: Annually after exam boards; full review every 5 years
Evidence used	Example: Assessment results by CLO, external examiner comments, student survey, course evaluation reports (`education/course-evaluation-report`)
Triggers for an early review	Example: New course, change to a professional body requirement, repeated low results on one outcome
Where the map is stored	[Shared drive or repository path]

8. Glossary and references

Term	Meaning
PLO	Programme learning outcome: what graduates can do at the end of the programme
CLO	Course learning outcome: what students can do at the end of one course or module
Constructive alignment	Designing outcomes, activities and assessment so they point at the same performance
I, D, M, A	Introduced, developed, mastered, assessed: the levels used in the programme matrix

References:

Biggs, J. (1996). Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment. Higher Education, 32(3), 347-364. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138871
Biggs, J., Tang, C. and Kennedy, G. (2022). Teaching for Quality Learning at University, 5th edition. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Related templates: education/course-design, education/syllabus, education/unit-plan, and for business schools mba/mba-core-curriculum-map.

Standard and licence note

Structure aligned with the principle of constructive alignment (Biggs, 1996; Biggs, Tang and Kennedy, 2022), cited by name; no text from those publications is reproduced. The introduce, develop and master matrix is common curriculum-mapping practice. Check your institution's and any accrediting body's current requirements before using the map for quality review. This template is original text written for this collection; the example programme, courses and findings are illustrative. Template licence: MIT.

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