CMTS Step 6: Interpreting Your Curriculum Map and Appraising Your Curriculum

To examine the curriculum map your department developed and evaluate the extent that your program meets the ASA’s recommendations, the Sociological Literacy Framework, and self-defined goals. To reach consensus on program areas that are strong and those that need potential improvement.

One department meeting and an additional 15 minutes to log information into the Qualtrics CMTS Primary Tool. This may take somewhat longer in departments that have members with strongly divergent perspectives.

1. Provide your colleagues access to the following resources

CMTS Video 6 – Interpreting and Responding to Your Report Recommendations and the Sociological Literacy Framework

TOOL – Your Department’s Collective Review of its Curriculum

Your completed curriculum maps

Inform your colleagues that the video is only 5 minutes long and that you would want to gain their perspectives on how well they believe the program is addressing the ASA’s recommendations and your own self-identified goals in light of the information in the curriculum maps your department developed. Suggest that colleagues watch the video in advance of the meeting, but in case any member was not able to view the video, it might be helpful to watch it as a collectivity.

2. Add discussion of review of the curriculum maps as a main item on a department meeting agenda. Guide colleagues to discuss each of the ASA’s recommendations and self-identified goals using the tool Your Department’s Collective Review of Its Curriculum (linked above). Use this tool to record the consensus reached on how well your program is addressing each goal. You will need a record of this discussion and conclusions reached. So that you can make it through all of the recommendations, we suggest that the focus not be on solutions, but simply on identifying if your program is strong or weak with respect to each recommendation.

3. Log into the Qualtrics CMTS Primary Tool and answer 35 short questions. This simply involves transferring information recorded in the tool Your Department’s Collective Review of Its Curriculum (linked above) into the Qualtrics program.

***IMPORTANT – When logging into the Qualtrics CMTS Primary Tool, use your saved bookmark link. This enables the CMTS to build a custom report using all of the information you provide***