Curriculum renewal and accreditation support

We offer custom support and guidance for a faculty-driven, collaborative and evidence-based curriculum renewal process. We can help you strategize your change process and explore options for a modest refresh or a full overhaul.

Our approach

We understand that every program and faculty has unique needs as they seek to renew their curriculum. Educational developers are available to support you, regardless of where you are in the curricular change process, so that you can most effectively serve your learners and the broader community.

We bring experience and an in-depth knowledge of best practices, grounded in the latest research, to help you define your goals and strategize ways to achieve them. We know that you as faculty have deep expertise in your disciplinary context and in the classroom. Our role is to help you clarify your priorities, create a targeted needs assessment and to choose from and apply an array of resources and methods in curriculum change processes.  

Building the foundation for a successful renewal process

Research in curriculum change processes highlight key factors for success, including drafting a team to guide the renewal process, developing a shared vision amongst faculty, forming goals for teamwork and collaboration, and clarifying structures of communication and decision-making. Professional development supports are also crucial elements in curriculum renewal processes. The Centre offers customized support in planning the initial stages of your change process, working to help you mitigate barriers and identify ways to enable continued improvement.  

The Curriculum Renewal Handbook offers a general overview of the curriculum renewal cycle, as well as basic steps for planning your process. It is a useful starting point. In addition, consultations enable us to understand the opportunities and challenges of your program’s individual context.  

Using curriculum mapping to analyze and assess

We encourage a holistic approach to curriculum renewal, beginning by analyzing the program as a whole to assess where and how a program’s goals and commitments are currently being met. 

A curriculum map provides a visual depiction of a program (often expressed as a matrix) that displays the relationships of individual courses to program goals and/or professional competencies. It provides a view of the program as an aggregate and is useful for identifying gaps, overlaps, linkages, and friction points in the curriculum. 

A big-picture mapping process can be the starting point for reassessing program learning objectives and creating an action plan for change. We emphasize engaging in curriculum mapping as a collaborative faculty process.

Curriculum mapping also benefits students, giving them a greater sense of program coherence. A holistic approach to curriculum design can help students develop skills in self-aware, self-directed learning, as well as increasing the likelihood that they achieve program learning objectives.

Thumbnail of the Power of the Curriculum Map video from University of Hawai'i at Manoa

Watch The Power of the Curriculum Map video

Video provided with permission from The University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.

Making decisions for change

Now that you’ve assessed your current program, what does your renewal work need to accomplish for your program The Centre provides consultations, helps design retreats, and can create custom workshops to help resource faculty in the move to a renewed curriculum. We can guide you in the processes of:

  • goal setting and project planning
  • responding to the university’s strategic plan, as well as our responsibility to engage the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action 
  • pursuing additional avenues of program evaluation and information gathering
  • creating greater program-level coherence or “constructive alignment” between teaching, learning, and assessment
  • building a diverse leadership team and creating a collaborative culture 

Empowering learners through strengthened pedagogies

How can your program respond to the dynamic needs of learners? The Centre can support faculty through professional development and resources that help you help student reach their potential through a diverse range of teaching methods and practices, such as:

Getting started

In the first consultation, we will ask you questions about your goals, where you are in the process, and your plans for gathering a renewal team.

Additional Resources:

Ethical Space of Engagement in Curriculum Development Processes: Indigenous Guiding Principles for Curriculum Development Projects | Resource Library | Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning | University of Calgary.
https://taylorinstitute.ucalgary.ca/resources/indigenous-guiding-principles-for-curriculum-development-projects 

“Curriculum Mapping / Curriculum Matrix.” Assessment and Curriculum Support Center, https://manoa.hawaii.edu/assessment/resources/curriculum-mapping-curriculum-matrix/.

Bordage, Georges, and Ilene Harris. “Making a Difference in Curriculum Reform and Decision-Making Processes.” Medical Education, vol. 45, no. 1, 2011, pp. 87–94, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2010.03727.x.

Charlton, Nicholas, and Richard Newsham-West. “Enablers and Barriers to Program-Level Assessment Planning.” Higher Education Research and Development, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2024.2307933.

Wijngaards-de Meij, Leoniek, and Sigrid Merx. “Improving Curriculum Alignment and Achieving Learning Goals by Making the Curriculum Visible.” The International Journal for Academic Development, vol. 23, no. 3, 2018, pp. 219–31, https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2018.1462187.

Acknowledgements:

Parts of the 'using curriculum mapping to analyze and assess' section of this page have been adapted, with permission, from materials from the Assessment and Curriculum Support Center at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.