Striving for excellence in all that we do is an integral part of professionalism. And teaching plays a central role for us as physicians, who, in the Hippocratic Oath, pledge to instruct those who follow in the science and the art of medicine. In fact, the word doctor comes from the Latin word meaning to teach. Given that evaluations help us as doctors become better teachers, course surveys are a required tradition at Weill Cornell Medical College. In Spring 2008, in response to a student-led initiative and in the spirit of partnership to improve the curriculum, the Core Basic Science Committee approved the posting of course survey results for viewing by both faculty and students.
How Courses are Rated
Students are asked to rate course/module organization, formats (e.g., journal club, PBL, labs), resources (e.g., on-line resources, textbooks, website), exam assessment, and overall experience. In addition, students are asked to rate each course learning objective, as well as special questions focusing on new course initiatives, innovations, or modifications. Both quantitative (numerical ratings) and qualitative (open-ended comments) data is collected.
Evaluations are completely anonymous, but the Curriculum Office is aware of whether a student has completed the evaluation.
How Comments Can Be Helpful
The more specific the comment, the more useful it is for course leadership. For example, "The textbook was too simple in that it did not cover X, Y, and Z and had factual errors" is preferable to "The textbook was horrible." Or "The lecture was stimulating because the speaker included student interaction and real patients, which helped clarify X, Y, and Z" is better than simply "The lecture was awesome!"
Similarly, specific details are more helpful than simple generalizations when making suggestions on what might be implemented to improve a course. For example, "It would be better for the lecture on X to have preceded the lecture on Q" is preferable to "The sequence of lectures seemed weird to me."
What the Ratings Mean
Each question is assigned a 0-5 rating: 0 = N/A (e.g., unable to judge); 1 = lowest weight (e.g., not at all); and 5 = highest weight (e.g., to a great extent). A quantitative summary is provided for each question, which includes the average score (0-5), total number of student responses, and the number and percent of students selecting each rating value (0 to 5).
The Office of Curriculum synopsizes the narrative comments (raw data) and organizes them into common themes. Most frequent comments are presented in bold typeface. Personal comments about individual faculty (positive or negative) are not included in the synopsis.
How Survey Results Can Be Useful
Survey results are more credible, of course, if there is a 100% response rate. In addition, completion of the survey within one week of the ending of the course reduces recall bias.
For each course, quantitative and qualitative summary data is sent to the Course Director, who distributes it to the respective Course Design Group, where it is reviewed and discussed.
Over the years, substantive modifications have been made to courses as a result of student feedback. For example, course design groups have revised course sequence; added or deleted course topics, modules, and/or sessions; reduced topic redundancy within and across courses; filled curricular gaps, and better matched faculty with teaching venue (e.g., lectures vs. small group).
Not only do students completing the survey for a given course help improve that course for upcoming students, but, given that their survey results are shared with other course directors, these students may also benefit from changes in courses they themselves will take in the future.
