What is curriculum mapping for generative AI?

Now that faculty are becoming more familiar with generative artificial intelligence (AI) platforms and understanding their discipline-specific implications, it is an optimal time for academic departments to engage in discussions of what impact, if any, generative AI should have on their curricula.  We have reached the point where faculty (and students) will benefit from departmental consideration of the following critical questions: 

1. What do we want the students in our academic program to know and be able to do with (or without) generative AI?
2. At what point in our academic program—that is, in what specific courses—will students learn these skills?
3. Does our academic program need a discipline-specific, program-level learning outcome about generative AI?

Affirming the relevance of program-level outcomes and collaboratively deciding whether or not they need to be updated is a critical first step. Once program-level learning outcomes are affirmed, curriculum mapping offers a means of charting what happens at any given point throughout an academic program. Mapping a program’s curriculum helps departments identify points of redundancy (such as duplicated instructional efforts and course overlap) and address potential gaps.

This consultative service guides academic programs through the curriculum mapping process, with a specific focus on helping faculty articulate what they want students to be able to know by the end of their academic programs relative to discipline-specific applications of generative AI.

Curriculum Mapping Process

The CTI will facilitate the following reflective and technical process for participating academic programs and departments:

1. Initial consultation; we will help your program:
   • identify the essential roles/stakeholders that need to be a part of the process
   • develop a timeline
   • establish next steps for the department
2. Review of program learning outcomes; we will help you:
   • establish a common language for conversations on generative AI
   • affirm current program outcomes
   • Determine whether or not a program-level, discipline-specific generative AI learning outcome is necessary
3. Curriculum mapping; we will help you:
   • identify opportunities to establish when and where students will learn about generative AI-related topics and have generative AI-related learning experiences throughout their program of study 
   • identify potential areas for updating the curriculum
4. Action planning; we will help you identify concrete next steps for curriculum revision for your department that match your timeline, along with any relevant next steps for instruction

Getting Started with Curriculum Mapping

For more information or to request an initial consultation, please contact us.