Karen Willcox, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Linking Learning Outcomes and Topics across the Undergraduate Curriculum

This talk will discuss two ongoing educational projects aimed at linking topics and outcomes across the undergraduate curriculum. First, the Crosslinks project maps how topics connect across courses. Topics are linked by way of prerequisite relationships, i.e., more advanced topics require earlier, more fundamental topics. In this way, a network of topics is formed, and the learning pathway for any topic is easily seen. The Crosslinks page for each topic comprises six components – Prepare, Learn, Apply, Relate, Advance and Visualize – corresponding to a facet of comprehension. These components provide different types of learning resources to help the student achieve different facets of understanding associated with the topic. Second, the Xoces project catalogs, structures and visualizes learning outcomes within a curriculum. Xoces has been applied to the aerospace engineering undergraduate curriculum at MIT and to the entire undergraduate curriculum at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. At MIT, more than 1100 outcomes were collected from more than 20 subjects in the department and from several prerequisite subjects outside the department (e.g., mathematics, physics, materials science). Finally, it will conclude with a brief description of the new Fly-by-Wire project, which is developing a blended-learning technology for teachers to provide scalable, differentiated instruction.