What are Maps?

Overview

Maps, also called curriculum maps, are the main feature in Skillways. Learning activities can be linked to specific learning outcomes and skills. By associating granular, rubric-based performance metrics to each learning task, there is greater insight into learner progress and skill achievement. 

Why Maps?

These granular performance metrics quantify the achievement of skills and offer evidence of learner competency that otherwise is not available within a traditional learning management system (LMS). There is also an element of repetitious opportunity to interact with the content, allowing practice and feedback built into Skillways. This functionality allows the learner to hone individual skills and grow their overall skill set.

Everything will need to be mapped in the course, from learning outcomes to related outcomes such as module outcomes, course outcomes, and/or program outcomes. Many times we only see how course outcomes map to program outcomes and not necessarily how they map down to the learner activity or assignment level in a specific course.

Within the Maps feature, skills tags can be added to outcomes. Skillways integrates industry skills taxonomies to ensure that programs and courses are aligned to workforce needs and that lead learners to a path of targeted, productive employment options. Aligning the curriculum directly to these skills provides a purposeful pathway for learners to show the development of these meaningful, relevant skills in their course work. The system technologizes learning design, so best practices are built into the pathways in a way that is not natively found in other systems.

Traditional systems fall short when it comes to connecting course work directly to skill achievement. The standard LMS is grade and completion based only, providing very little, if any, actionable data related to skill development or outcomes achieved. The associations made in Skillways produce valuable data on both ends of the design process—it enables setting intentional pathways for learners to achieve outcomes from the start and as the learner journey continues, and it allows users to obtain actionable insights from authentic assessments to direct learners towards success. This creates a feedback loop of data for continuous improvement towards preparing learners and offers quantifiable evidence of their achievements beyond just a letter grade. Recognizing that institutions are not likely to abandon their LMS, Skillways was designed so that it can be used in conjunction with an existing LMS.