Mandatory Evaluations of Didactic Educators
Purpose
To describe the policy revision for the assignment of mandatory didactic educator evaluations in the Bridges Curriculum.
Overview
Evaluations of our educators (e.g., faculty members, residents, post-doctoral fellows) who teach in the didactic setting (e.g., lecture, large and small groups, seminars, and laboratory) are valuable to the ongoing improvement of teaching, our students’ learning environment, and the effectiveness of the Bridges Curriculum. This updated Bridges Curriculum Medical Student Evaluations of Didactic Educators policy continues to address the evaluation principles outlined below while also addressing the need to provide junior faculty members or those faculty teaching new content opportunities for evaluation data to improve their teaching practice.
In the Bridges Curriculum students are assigned to complete evaluations that are both mandatory and optional. Medical students are expected to complete their mandatory evaluation assignments in a timely manner in order to inform ongoing decision making and improve the curriculum/program educators, course directors, and educational leadership for ongoing decision-making and improvements. While the completion of optional evaluations are not required, completion of mandatory evaluations is part of student attainment of the Professionalism competency in the Bridges Curriculum. The School of Medicine makes every effort to ensure that the quantity of evaluations assigned is manageable for students. As such, educators will always be evaluated during a course but not all educators will be assigned to receive mandatory teaching evaluations.
Under the direction of the updated Bridges Curriculum Medical Student Mandatory Evaluations of Didactic Educators policy, the decision for which educators will be assigned mandatory educator evaluations will be made by the course director and she/he will determine assignment based on a combination of criteria including the overall number of educator evaluations in a course, amount of student contact, the novelty of the educator’s teaching role and content taught, and the educator’s need for teaching evaluations with the goals of encouraging high quality evaluations and minimizing evaluation burden on students.
Principles
Bridges Curriculum evaluation policies and procedures should:
- Provide the School of Medicine with the important information needed to guide curricular decision making that:
- Meets the needs for continuous quality improvement of the curriculum.
- Provides in-depth, dynamic data on the initial implementation phase of the curriculum.
- Be respectful of student time and avoid student evaluation overload.
- Meet institutional needs, such as course director decision making and teaching faculty promotion and tenure requirements.
- Follow sound and rigorous evaluation principles and methods.
- Be compliant with the accreditation standards on evaluation set forth by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME).
Policy
- Mandatory educator teaching evaluation (those which count toward the students’ attainment of the professionalism competency see Student Participation in Bridges Curriculum Evaluation) will be determined on a course basis by the course directors. Course directors, in consultation with the element directors, will have ultimate responsibility for determining which educators will receive mandatory evaluation and will use a combination of the following factors to determine which educators will be selected to receive mandatory teaching evaluations:
- Need for teaching evaluations to facilitate promotion decisions and/or application to the Academy of Medical Educators
- Need evaluation data to enhance new or junior educator teaching quality
- Need for feedback on teaching new content or teaching methods
- Equitable distribution of evaluations based on factors such as educator gender and race/ethnicity.
- Amount of time dedicated to teaching students in the course
- To ensure that faculty receive rich feedback on their teaching evaluations and student evaluation burden is minimized, the number of mandatory educators a student is to complete will not exceed 50% of the total educators who teach in the course.
- All other educators will be assigned teaching evaluations that are optional for students to complete
Policy Limitations (optional)
This policy covers didactic courses taught throughout the curriculum, including courses taught in Foundations 1, Foundations 2 and Career Launch. This policy does not include clinical teaching and supervision.
Procedure
The procedures associated with this policy are described in the accompanying document titled Educator Evaluation Selection Procedures which is shared with each course 1.5 months before the start of the course.
For all methods for students to provide feedback: https://tiny.ucsf.edu/MethodsStudentFeedback
Accountable Dean or Director: Director of Program Evaluation
Related Policies
This policy replaces the Three-Tiered System for Educator Evaluations.
This policy is related to and enacted in conjunction with the following policies:
Student Participation in Bridges Curriculum Evaluation
Program Evaluation Policy
Evaluations Standardization Policy
Release Policy for Student Evaluation of Educators
Access to Educator Teaching Evaluations Policy
Approval Date and Governing Body: July 9, 2019, CCEP
