Activities / Project
Curriculum evaluation
Vicki Dale has been working with Stan Head, assisted by Cheryl Jackson, on the refinement of a generic evaluation inventory, originally produced as a student questionnaire to monitor the quality of the new BVetMed curriculum, which places a strong emphasis on self-directed learning.
Using a modified version of the Delphi technique, a panel of expert stakeholders (including senior management officials, academic development staff, an educational researcher, a student support officer and student representatives) reviewed a draft inventory in two stages. Experts rated the statements on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree that items should be included) to 5 (strongly agree that item should be included).
Excluding statements with a mean value less than 4 resulted in an inventory with 92 items, distributed to first year students towards the end of the first term. Factor analysis on the results produced 41 statements correlated at a level of 0.5 or above with one of seven main factors: (1) directed learning classes, (2) private study, (3) practical classes, (4) tutors and tutorials, (5) learning objectives and assessment, (6) timetabling and (7) interactive self-assessment tools. The reliability of each scale of the evaluation inventory was measured using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and was shown to be moderate (0.65) to high (0.85).
This work has resulted in the production of a user-friendly evaluation inventory for assessing students’ perceptions of a self-directed curriculum.
Further information
- Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) Conference 2008, Prague –
“Students’ first impressions of a new curriculum with increased self-directed learning” (short communication), V.H.M. Dale, Stan D. Head and Stephen A. May;
“Development of a generic evaluation inventory for a new curriculum with increased self-directed learning” (poster), V.H.M. Dale, Stan D. Head and Stephen A. May.