Curriculum Alignment -

Our Mission

The mission of curriculum alignment is to facilitate alignment of lower-level and gateway courses completed at UCF and the six DirectConnect partner institutions. Curriculum alignment serves to improve transfer and native UCF student outcomes in upper-level courses through horizontal, vertical, and integrated alignment of learning outcomes for lower-level gateway courses taken at UCF and at the six DirectConnect to UCF institutions.

Goals

Among the DirectConnect partner colleges and the University of Central Florida (UCF), the goals of curriculum alignment are:

To synchronize core content and the competencies gained by students taking courses that are transferable within the partner colleges and UCF.
To increase propensity of state college students completing lower-level courses required for their anticipated major.
To ensure that the competencies gained by students taking these courses are sufficient for successful progression to a requisite/next level course at any institution, with the ultimate goal of a UCF bachelor’s degree.

As in everything, the primary objective is improving student success.

Values

The core value is that we are committed to “our” students’ success. In our curriculum alignment discussions we value:

Collaboration and collegiality to break down the silos in education and create enduring partnerships focused on student transition and success.
Community where educators from each segment work with one another to align the skills, knowledge, and abilities students need to make a success transition from one level to another in the postsecondary journey and to the world of work.
Student success data to identify knowledge and skill gaps evident in transfer students and work to address these gaps through vertical or integral alignment
Faculty as experts in their respective disciplines
Sanctity of faculty academic freedom

These values supports additional outcomes of the initiative which are a) to ensure that the courses that make up the various pathways of success from a state-college meta-major to a university degree are effective, b) to contribute to the success of the national college completion agenda, and c) to produce successful graduates that contribute to the local and state workforce.