A Rapid Evidence Assessment on the Impact of Curriculum Mapping as an Educational Design Tool in Medical Education

This paper presents a rapid evidence assessment examining the impact of curriculum mapping in medical education, based on an analysis of forty studies synthesized using Elicit, an AI-powered tool. The review addresses two primary research questions: the effect of curriculum mapping on student learning outcomes and its impact on institutional efficiency. The findings reveal a significant divergence, with a notable absence of robust, quantitative evidence for a direct, measurable impact on student learning, while a majority of studies documented substantial improvements in administrative efficiency. This assessment suggests that while curriculum mapping is a highly effective tool for institutional management, its pedagogical benefits to students are less frequently substantiated in the existing literature. The methodology's reliance on a single AI tool for data synthesis is a key limitation of this work.