Evaluation in the University Medical Centre
In the University Medical Centre the evaluation of courses is separate from the central course evaluation and attempts to research the quality of teaching using a different survey structure. Here, a set of tools that continues to evolve was created with the project of evaluating educational progress in the field of Human Medicine, which received scientific support from the start. Critical parameters have proved to be the number and precise wording of the points surveyed, selection of their content (targeted at the Göttingen Educational Objectives of the University Medical Centre) and the time of the survey (in one or two stages before and after the course). In the procedure as it now stands, all the points in the questions undergo a comprehensive procedure of optimisation and selection, at the end of which the evaluation committee determines which points form the basis for evaluation of educational progress in the modules. An itemised analysis of the educational progress evaluation is sent to all teaching staff involved in a module. At the end of each semester, all the modules of the clinical study phase are ranked by average learning progress and this is published within each faculty. The best modules receive an award and financial support from the performance-based resource allocation for teaching.
Since the 2008/09 winter semester, the Human Medicine clinical training stage has also offered the opportunity of gathering information on students’ educational progress by means of an innovative evaluation process. Educational progress on a teaching module is hereby calculated as a percentage using a comparison of students’ self-assessments. Taking the educational objectives from the Göttingen Educational Objectives into account is designed to ensure that the key content of the medical studies is well taught. The results of the educational progress evaluation are regularly published within the university.
As well as standardised questionnaires for completion by all course participants, the module reports from student representatives in the field of medicine also represent another element of students’ evaluation of teaching practice. This tool enables representatives selected for a specific semester to deliver assessments of courses and to make suggestions for improvement, without specifying the content or format of the assessments.
The module reports of student representatives in UMC are first of all sent to those with responsibility for the module for comment, and both together (student representatives’ reports and comments of relevant teaching staff) are discussed with students and teaching staff at the committee meetings for that study phase. Since feedback from previous semesters is also followed up at these meetings and the implementation of suggestions for improvement is reviewed, this completes the Plan, Do, Check and Act quality control loop.