How to evaluate your EuTEACH session/course

A Quick General Guide

Evaluation

Evaluation is a tool. How you use this tool will depend on what you are attempting to achieve by using the curriculum.

• If you wish to measure the ‘competency’ achieved by the participants you can use the evaluation tools detailed in the documents focusing on the evaluation of the trainees.
  
  
• If you are seeking to improve your teaching sessions then you will need some form of ‘feedback’ as to what your students thought about content, structure, resources and teaching strategies. To do this you can use the appropriate ‘participants feed back form’.
  
  
• In addition the EuTEACH team is interested in obtaining feed back from you as a teacher, in order to continuously develop the site and improve the curriculum. A ‘teacher feedback form’ is provided for this.

There are several approaches that enable a teacher to evaluate the students/learners who took part in courses based on the EuTEACH curriculum. The choice among the evaluation methods will depend on the wording of the specific objectives selected for a course, as well as the reason for the evaluation.

As mentioned, it is essential that the teacher designing and managing the course set clear and measurable objectives (see planning your session). Ideally, an objective will indicate who will do how much of what by when. At minimum, an objective should identify a desired outcome that can be assessed. Following the selection of objectives, a teacher should ask, what kind of information/evidence will show that the objective has been reached? How can this information be collected? What will be done with the results?

The purpose of the evaluation will determine the complexity or rigor of the evaluation design. If the learner must fill certain criteria for certification in an accredited program, then the evaluation must collect the information that proves those requirements were reached (see evaluation of trainees). Test scores might have to show the degree or level to which an objective was attained. Such issues as test reliability and validity will be important. In some cases, pre- and post testing may be needed.

If the learner attends a course for self-improvement or independent interest, then the evaluation has a different endpoint. Information on personal improvement, attainment of personal goals, and course satisfaction may be the kind of information sought, and a simple completed/not-completed rating may be sufficient (‘participants feed back form’). Feedback on performance could be practical for the learner, and feedback on the success of the teaching process could be valuable to the course managers.

In addition to the reason for the evaluation, the kind of competency to be measured will affect the evaluation design and emphasis. Although the EuTEACH curriculum addresses the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes and skills, formal written testing of knowledge is less emphasized because many of the learners will have a tested knowledge base from previous education. Methods to measure changes in attitude and improvement in skills should be selected or developed.

A teacher planning the evaluation of one course might use several different assessment instruments, such as questionnaires, observation or video taping of the learner in a specific encounter (assessment of process and content), individual or group interview, learner self- review, skills rating forms (possibly rating by simulated patients), patient chart review and written tests (see: evaluation of the trainees).

There are several websites devoted to the science of designing good evaluation:

• http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdTechGuide/whatseval.html
  offers a clear schema
  
  
• http://hagar.up.ac.za/catts/ole/eel/concept-map/types.html
  gives good definition of formative and summative evaluation types
  
  
• http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods/
  gives an exhausting list of other relevant web links

Download:

• Evaluation of the trainees
• Participants feed-back form
• Teacher’s feedback form