Evaluation Policies for Students

• Essential Core
  • Evaluation Release Policy
  • Essential Core Course Policy
• Clinical Core
  • General Policies
  • Evaluation Release Policy

Essential Core

Evaluation 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.

Essential Core Course Policy

• Block Evaluations
  • The overall block evaluation is sent out one week before the course ends. The evaluation consists of 24 questions.
  • 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.
  • All students must complete evaluations of their small group facilitators.
  • Students not assigned to evaluate the block must complete a single-item overall evaluation of the course and submit comments.
• 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.

Clinical Core

General Policies

Residents and faculty attending physicians complete evaluations of your performance. Residents work closely with you and often have the perspective on your overall performance. Attendings evaluate your presentations and usually talk with the residents in order to supplement their assessment of you. Clerkship or site directors compile your instructors’ comments to write a summary evaluation of your performance. For most clerkships, you can access the evaluations completed by instructors through the E*Value evaluation system. All clerkships make your summary evaluation available through E*Value after you have completed your instructor and course evaluations. A printed copy of your summary evaluation is placed in your student file in the Office of Curricular Affairs (OCA), room S-221. It often takes up to 8 weeks before the summary evaluation is filed. If you believe an evaluation is unfair, you should speak directly to the clerkship or site director immediately.

You have eight weeks following the posting of your completed evaluation to E*Value or submission of your evaluation to the Office of Curricular Affairs to get a clerkship grade or comments revised.

The Honors grade is awarded to students on the basis of their outstanding performance on all aspects of the clerkship: clinical knowledge, clinical skills, and professional and personal attributes. To earn Honors, students need to be judged outstanding by all of their supervising instructors. Honors are limited to 25-30% of students who take each core clerkship.

OCA maintains an “open file” policy, which means that you may look at your file any time during office hours: weekdays 8:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. Your file contains third- and fourth-year clinical clerkship evaluations; AMCAS application; copies of petitions; research proposals; etc. You may check out any of these documents and make copies of them. Student files are confidential. Thus, if you ask a faculty member to write a letter of recommendation, you will need to photocopy information from your file yourself and give it to the letter writer, along with a current CV.

Except for preceptorship evaluations, the students’ identity is withheld on all instructor and course evaluations completed by students in the School of Medicine. Reciprocity rules are in place for evaluations between students and instructors, and between, clerkship and student summary evaluations.

Evaluation 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.