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Office of Evaluation & Assessment Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between evaluation and assessment?

  • Evaluation:
    • College/provide feedback
    • Programmatic improvement
  • Assessment:
    • Determination of individual achievement
    • Measuring knowledge, skills, attitudes, etc.

What evaluations does OEA routinely collect from students?

  • Course and Clerkship Evaluations
    • At the end of the course/clerkship
    • Evaluation of course attributes and teaching
  • Professionalism and Mistreatment
    • Bi-annually, January and July
    • Online Reporting Mechanisms
  • Learning Environment
    • Annual Student Survey
    • Climate Survey
  • Preparedness Survey
    • Approximately Annually

Am I required to complete evaluations?

  • Yes. Evaluations are mandatory.

How do you know if I completed evaluations?

  • Our evaluation system, Blue, automatically tracks who evaluations are sent to and when/if they are completed.

What happens if I don’t complete an evaluation?

  • Chronic issues with evaluation completion are regarded as a professionalism concern and reported.

How do I provide constructive feedback?

  • You can report issues in need of improvement or issues that are going particularly well and could serve as a model.  To report, state the issue and how it could be improved/what makes the issue positive and/or appropriate to serve as a model, use professional language (e.g., respectful and constructive), examples are helpful
    • Example: Dr. XXX’s lecture was difficult to follow. It would be helpful to have more of the slides in the handout notes and just a more sketched out handout to aid learning. In addition, despite the microphone and being seated in the first few rows, I had difficulty comprehending everything Dr. XXX so it would be appreciated if Dr. XXX could project more and just go a little slower. Dr. YYY’s slides would serve as a good model for how Dr. XXX might improve his slides.

Where do I report professionalism concerns or exemplary professional behavior?

  • These should be reported here, about faculty, students, or staff. These reports are typically seen by a Rapid Response Team within a couple of days.

Where does OEA share changes that have been made with the feedback students have provided?

  • These are shared with the student subcommittee of the Curriculum Committee, and eventually, on our website.

Where do I get general help with Blue?

Where do I get help if I cannot locate the attending (in the Blue software) who was with me during my rotation(s)?

  • For questions related to clinical evaluation assignments you must contact your clerkship coordinator.

What if I want to provide feedback more immediately?

  • Use Virtual Feedback, anytime, for any course/clerkship

Where does virtual feedback go?

  • OEA collects virtual feedback data weekly and sends a summary as well as verbatim comments to Academic Affairs as well as the relevant Curriculum Committee or Subcommittee leadership (e.g., Comments regarding Pre-Clerkship will go to Pre-Clerkship Subcommittee leaders).
  • We do not send verbatim comments to course directors until after the course has ended, to prevent recognition of the student making the comments.

Are completed evaluations anonymous?

  • Evaluations are confidential.
  • OEA provides only aggregated data and analyses in reports to educational leadership and Curriculum Committee.
  • For course and teaching evaluations, comments are provided verbatim to course/clerkship directors. Depending on your comment, your identity could be recognized.
  • For highly sensitive data (e.g., Professionalism, Mistreatment), OEA wants you to be candid and makes every effort to protect student identity.
  • Under very rare circumstances (e.g., Title IX violations), OEA may contact you about a specific evaluation you completed and may be required to report the data.

What happens with evaluation data?

  • It is used as part of data-driven decision making. Everything gets aggregated and reported, to:
    • Academic Affairs and other Educational Leadership
    • Curriculum Committee and its subcommittees
    • The Office of Continuous Quality Improvement
    • Course and Clerkship directors
    • Teaching faculty
    • Other Office of Medical Education departments as appropriate (i.e., Student Affairs, Faculty Development, etc.)