Evaluation Policies for Faculty

• General Policies
  • Evaluations Release Policy
  • Contesting Evaluations
  • Anonymity
• Essential Core Course Policy
  • Lectures/Lab Instructors
  • Small Group Facilitators
  • Block Evaluations
  • Mid-block Feedback Sessions
  • Release of Student Grades
  • Evaluation Summary Reports
• Non-Block Electives
• Clinical Core

General Policies

Evaluations Release Policy

Evaluations of our teaching faculty and residents are critical to the ongoing improvement of teaching, to our students’ learning environment, and to the effectiveness of our curriculum.

In the past, student evaluations of instructors have been invisible to individual instructors AND to course directors until 3 or more students completed an evaluation of a given instructor (with the exception of one-on-one preceptorships in FPC and LCE). Once three evaluations were submitted for a given instructor, s/he could view an aggregate report of the three evaluations. Over the past 2 years curriculum committees, all including student representation, have debated the merits of this rule and carefully evaluated its impact. A critical need for timely and constructive feedback to instructors has been identified, resulting in the recommendation that the 3-evaluation threshold be lifted.

The change in policy to allow instructors to view evaluations regardless of the number of evaluations completed WILL still require that the instructor has completed a reciprocal evaluation on the student. The rule that restricts viewing of individual evaluations as they are posted will be removed from our evaluation system (eValue) on January 1, 2006, thus releasing all evaluations of instructors completed by students –provided that the instructor has met the reciprocity requirement.

Along with maintenance of reciprocity rules, student names will continue to be withheld on evaluations completed by students. If you have any concerns regarding evaluations you have completed on faculty members prior to this announcement, please feel free to contact Arianne Teherani, Assistant Director for Evaluations in the Office of Educational Technology at teherani@medsch.ucsf.edu.

This change in evaluation policy was reviewed and approved by the Essential Core Course Committee, the Clinical Core Operations Committee and the Committee on Curriculum and Educational Policy.

Contesting Evaluations

• Course chairs can contest evaluation results if they feel that the results are not valid. Course chairs must file a “contested evaluation form” with OET.
• Individual instructors members who wish to contest an evaluation should go through their block/course chair to file a report. The rationale for the grievance should be described in detail. The Vice Dean for Education has the final decision as to any changes that can be made to the evaluation report, including deleting the results from the online system.

Anonymity

• Except for preceptorship evaluations, the students’ identity is withheld on all instructor and course evaluations completed by students in the School of Medicine.

Essential Core Course Policy

Lectures/Lab Instructors

• Instructors who lecture three or more hours are evaluated with the standard lecturer evaluation form - no items can be added or subtracted from it (7 items).
• Instructors who lecture less than three hours and those who conduct lab sessions, are evaluated with one evaluation item asking students to assess the overall effectiveness of that instructors member as lecturer/lab instructor. Instructors must request a copy of their evaluations from their course chairs. These evaluations are not available through eValue.

Small Group Facilitators

• Small group facilitators are evaluated at the end of each course. The standard form for evaluating small group facilitators consists of three items.
• All students must complete evaluations of their small group facilitators.

Block Evaluations

• The overall block evaluation is sent out one week before the course ends. The evaluation consists of 24 questions. Block chairs are able to add 3 additional block specific questions to the overall course evaluation.
• The optional block specific questions must be submitted through Ilios.
• Randomized subsets of students are assigned to completely evaluate a block. These students complete the following evaluation types (numerical ratings and comments): block, lecturers, and lab instructors.
• Students not assigned to evaluate the block must complete a single-item overall evaluation of the course and submit comments.
• Block chairs must review the Course Evaluation Roster under the Reports menu in ILIOS. This report lists all instructors assigned to teach in the block, along with their session titles and dates. This report must be approved through ILIOS prior to the start of the block and all instructor updates must be made in ILIOS two weeks prior to the end of the block in order for the instructor to be evaluated. Changes made in ILIOS are automatically emailed to OET through ILIOS. Changes in instructors, teaching format, etc. that are not recorded in ILIOS prior to the end of the course will not be evaluated. Changes cannot be made to evaluations AFTER the block is completed.

Mid-block Feedback Sessions

• Twenty-five randomly selected students are invited to participate in a mid-block feedback session to discuss their perceptions of the strengths and areas for improvement of a block. Course chairs are present at the mid-block feedback session.

Release of Student Grades

• According to Essential Core Course Committee policy, student final grades for each block are not released by OET until 70% evaluation response rate is reached.

Evaluation Summary Reports

• When the 70% evaluation response rate is reached, OET will complete and release Block Evaluation Summary Report to course chairs.

Non-Block Electives

Course directors for Non-Block Electives may request an evaluation of their course. The course director must contact OET at evaluations@medsch.ucsf.edu with their request accompanied by:

• a list of instructors to be evaluated. The list must include the number of hours each instructor teaches and the educational format of their sessions.
• A list of students taking the elective.
• the title (not just the course number) with which the course will be evaluated should also be provided to OET.

Course directors must notify OET two weeks prior to the end of course, of any changes to instructors or students. Changes in instructors, teaching format, or students that are not forwarded to OET prior to the end of the course will not be evaluated. Changes cannot be made to evaluations AFTER the course is completed.

Clinical Core

All clerkships must use the standard clerkship and attending/resident evaluation forms. [CCOC approved]

Clerkships may add 3 clerkship specific questions to the clerkship evaluation form. [CCOC approved]

Reciprocity rules are in place for evaluations between students and instructors, and between, clerkship and student summary evaluations. (Some offsite instructors, e.g. Kaiser educators, do not have e-mail access and are not scheduled in E*Value to evaluate the student. The student completes the evaluation online and the Clerkship administrator receives a hard copy evaluation of the student.)

If a clerkship director receives a low score notification for the respect items or a concerning confidential comment, a clerkship director may request access to all evaluations of the instructors from the Office of Educational Technology in order to appropriately follow up on a concern. Reciprocity rules will still apply, so the effected student’s evaluations will be released to the clerkship director only when the instructor has completed the student’s evaluation. The student’s names will still be withheld from the clerkship director in this setting.