Linking Student Performance to Public Health Competencies: Implications for MPH Curriculum

MPH programs must be able to measure their students’ acquisition of public health competencies.  Mapping competencies to course learning objectives, and learning objectives to learning activity assessments, however, can be complex and difficult to implement.   Topical mapping, outcomes-based mapping, and competency-based mapping principles provide varying level of information about curriculum.  In this session, the benefits and limitations of various methodologies are discussed.  Examples of curriculum mapping within a web-based learning management system will be explored.  Detailed curriculum maps, created for each MPH course within a curriculum, link learning objectives, learner assessments, and program and university competencies. The integration of the curriculum mapping program with the learning management system is critical to producing timely and accurate program level, course level, and student level performance reports on competency acquisition. The process of course development using the competency-based model of curriculum mapping can stimulate faculty development in pedagogy, creation of learning objectives, and modification of learning assessments.  At the programmatic level, competency-based reporting is valuable in assessment of individual student competency attainment, overall level of aggregate student performance per course, and for evaluation of how an MPH program addresses its chosen competencies throughout core and specialist curricula.