Staff and Educational
Development Association

Aim:

To present the process of implementation and highlight the implications of introducing an encompassing web based system of evaluation of clinical teaching.

Outcomes:

Participants will understand the process of implementing a web based evaluation system and explore the management implications of implementation.

Background:

Students can provide reliable, valid and discriminating information on the effectiveness of clinical teachers. A web-based system for student evaluation of all aspects of clinical education was implemented for medical students (years 3-5) in South Manchester Universities NHS Trust (SMUHT) in 1999. Student feedback has been returned to clinical teachers and forms a foundation to manage undergraduate medical education.

Methods:

Approximately 100 students/year proceeding to SMUHT complete evaluation forms, requesting quantitative and qualitative responses, within three weeks of finishing each module potentially yields 2000 evaluation episodes annually. Weekly email reminders are sent to students failing to complete the relevant form prior to the deadline.

Results:

Summarised results are fed back to students, tutors, SMUHT and the School of Medicine. Tutors receive ongoing and annual summaries of the quantitative evaluations presented graphically with the mean response for their student group compared to the overall mean rating from the whole group for the attributes evaluated. Individual summaries of qualitative comments are also provided. High response rates have been obtained for years 3 and 4 (70%-98%) with poorer responses for year 5.

Conclusion:

The web-based system has proved feasible allowing prompt, regular, individualised feedback. Procedures are being developed to set standards, both absolute and relative, and to ensure that actions are taken as a result of feedback are being formalised. Following implementation management issues have arisen including tutor/student confidentiality, persistent poor teaching performance and use of evaluation results for appraisal. Staff development activities are provided topics identified from the data. Overall implementation has resulted in an increased profile of undergraduate medical education within the organisation evidenced by increased tutor correspondence, discussion and contribution.

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