Faculty and student perception of innovative evaluation strategies in a medical programme basic area

Abstract

Objective: To understand the on-line knowledge examination, the Interdisciplinary Evaluation and Feedback Seminar (SERI in Spanish) and the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) as innovative evaluation strategies, based on the perceptions of faculty and students of an medical programme basic area. Materials and methods: Qualitative, microethnographic research. Five focus groups and seven in-depth interviews were conducted with faculty members and students who gave their informed consent and their permission for recording. The data were analysed using open axial coding and emerging categories. Triangulation of sources, authors and techniques was used, and a final report was prepared before returning the information. Results: The strategies studied have strengths and weaknesses; on-line examination is well accepted by the students but there is a lack coordination. Greater faculty training in the use of the platform is required, and it is important to establish mechanisms to avoid potential fraud. SERI favours feedback but there is a need to reduce the risk of affecting self-esteem and to find ways to improve knowledge assessment. OSCE comes closer to the correlation between basic training and clinical practice, but organisation and physical space for stations need to be improved. Conclusions: Innovative evaluation strategies must be the focus of constant review in terms of their structure and implementation in order to strengthen comprehensive student training.