SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

1999-2000 ASSESSMENT REPORT

HISTORY

The School of Veterinary Medicine has been committed to the continual assessment and improvement of its academic programs throughout the history of the School.  Admission policies and procedures, curricular design and teaching methods have changed over the years in response to internal and external information and feedback.  School faculty/student committees have been instrumental in analysis of school academic programs and the coordination of the implementation of change resulting from those analyses.  The departments coordinate faculty teaching reviews and coordinate the integration of instructional materials across the curriculum. 

Major changes in the professional curriculum have resulted from efforts to assess the effectiveness of the learning environment, assessing teaching and curricular goals, linking assessment of students to course objectives, and the incorporation of increasing amounts of integrated learning opportunities.  We have increased significantly the integration of the material we teach, providing students the opportunity to incorporate their learning across disciplines.  Each semester in the curriculum has a faculty coordinator who is responsible for semester faculty meetings to discuss how the semester instructors can work together to achieve the goals of integration of material and methods to incorporate problem-solving and critical thinking into all 4 years of the curriculum.

More extensive information about assessment in the School in the past is outlined in previous reports to the Assessment Council.  Copies of those reports are available if needed as attachments to this report. 

PROGRESS IN IMPLEMENTING ASSESSMENT PLANS

As a result of funding from the Assessment Council in 1998, the School has had the opportunity to plan and implement several new initiatives into the professional program.  That funding provided resources to hire a part time research assistant who assisted in the planning and development of several new initiatives: 1). a process to assess problem solving and critical thinking skills and 2.) the development of assessment questionnaires directed to graduates and their employers for feedback on the quality of our program and our graduates.

Along with current annual assessment processes (listed below) the 1999-2000 academic year featured the implementation of 2 new initiatives into the professional program:

1.      In May 2000, a new 4^th year student clinical performance assessment document was implemented into the 4^th year program.  This document was the result of over a year and a half of meetings with faculty and discussions by the curriculum committee on the need to implement methods to teach and assess problem solving and critical thinking skills in the students.  As we researched this subject we found that there was no existing vehicle at the national level in either veterinary medical or medical schools that had been developed to identify the parameters important to assessing problem solving and critical thinking, thus we had to develop an original assessment vehicle.  The vehicle we developed is unique in the U.S..

Over the 2000-2001 academic year data will be collected from this evaluation of the students and it will be used to evaluate students for growth in these areas of learning.  In addition, the faculty in the first semesters of the curriculum will be using the document to identify ways the students can learn and practice problem solving and critical thinking skills throughout their professional program. 

2.      During 1999-2000 we also developed 2 questionnaires to assess the quality of our graduates and the effectiveness of our curriculum have been finalized and will be sent out this semester.   The questionnaires were developed to focus on feedback from our graduates and their employers.  Our goal is to assess the effectiveness of our curriculum in meeting the needs of the graduate and the profession and obtain feedback on how we can improve our program..

CONTINUING ASSESSMENT IMPLEMENTATION

During the 1999-2000 the School continued the implementation of assessment projects that have been contributing to our development over the years.  Data from these assessment projects has resulted in continuing change as a means of continually improving our professional program.  A summary of those projects follows:

1.      DATA FROM LICENSING EXAMS.:  Reviews of the national veterinary licensing exam results have indicated areas in our curriculum that needed reassessment..  Clinical pharmacology was specifically identified as an area where our students did not perform well.  As a result of that feedback, we have changed the way we teach pharmacology.  We have split one course into 2 courses and changed the content to include more clinical pharmacology.  This change appears to have had an effect on the performance of our students on the licensing exam.  However, we will continue to collect data and assess this area of study over the next few years.

2.      ADMISSIONS ASSESSMENT.  An assessment questionnaire is given annually to the students who are admitted to our program to identify ways that we can improve our interactions with pre-veterinary students and applicants.  This effort has lead to changes in our application and has increased the written communication we have with applicants.

3.      BUSINESS/ETHICS COURSE ADDITION.  As a result of feedback from the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education (the accrediting agency for veterinary medical colleges), information obtained in assessments of the veterinary medical profession, and feedback from our graduates, the curriculum committee will propose for faculty vote this year the addition of a required course in business management/ethics/jurisprudence.  The school has had electives in these subject areas in the past.  In addition, business and ethics components were added to the New Student Orientation this fall for our newly entering 1^st year students.

4.      STUDENT FEEDBACK.  Questionnaires to students in our program have indicated that the students seek additional opportunities to participate in clinical rotations throughout the 4 years of the curriculum.  This addition will not only build confidence and enthusiasm in the students for learning throughout the curriculum, but will also contribute learning opportunities in problem solving and critical thinking earlier in their education.  This fall we implemented the first required course, Orientation to Clinics, that would require that students participate in clinical activities.

5.      ASSESSMENT OF WHAT WE TEACH.  As a method of continual assessment of what we teach, the Curriculum Committee has developed and is in the process of implementing a curricular database into which faculty enter their course syllabus and other support materials.  The faculty will use this information to assess the content of the curriculum and better coordinate the teaching of material across the 4 years of instruction.

6.      COURSE CHANGES .  Student feedback on courses in the curriculum has had significant impact on changing the curriculum each year.  The departments coordinate the course evaluations each term and assess the courses and instructors for teaching effectiveness.  Major changes in course such as Virology, Histology, Biochemistry, Surgery, Physiology and other course have resulted from student feedback on the courses.  We are very proud of our faculty for their continuing interest in making their courses work well for the learners.

7.      PEER REVIEW OF TEACHING.  Peer review of teaching is actively employed in the School to assess faculty teaching and provide feedback and training to faculty to continue to improve our teaching.

8.      EXIT SURVEYS.  Exit surveys of the 4^th year students have made significant contributions to the learning environment in the clinical rotations.  Changes in faculty/student clinical rounds and in the amount of student interactions with clinical faculty are examples of changes that have occurred as a result of feedback from our exiting 4^th year student

CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENTING ASSESSMENT PLANS

We face a number of challenges in planning, developing and implementing assessment processes in the School.   The first is person-power.  A well coordinated and implemented assessment plan for our curriculum could use a full time person as its coordinator.  There are so many exciting things we could be doing with regard to continual assessment of our program that cannot be implemented due to time constraints.  Faculty members are not necessarily scholars of assessment; thus there is a process of education of the faculty that must precede new attempts at assessment planning and implementation. 

The second major challenge to implementing assessment plans is applying the analysis of assessment feedback across an integrated curriculum.  Curricular change is often difficult to implement even for one course, but when many faculty are involved in an integrated program like ours, it making effective implementation very time intensive.  The implementation of the clinical evaluation of problem solving and critical thinking took over 2 years to be planned and implemented.  As we collect and analyze the data from these evaluations we will be investing significant time in the evolution of this process.

ASSESSMENT PLANS FOR 2000-2001

The implementation of the problem solving and critical thinking assessment for students in the 4^th year will continue.  We will gather data from this assessment and use that data to evaluate why some students have a difficult time learning to problem solve and critically think.  We will be asking the questions: 1.) ÏIs there a way to identify applicants  who have difficulty with problem solving and critical thinking skills? and 2). ÏHow can we teach problem solving and critical thinking in the curriculum?Ó  , or at least earlier in the program.  In addition, the faculty will continue to plan ways to implement learning and assessment of problem solving critical thinking into the first 3 years of the curriculum.

The questionnaires to graduates and their employers will be sent, collected and assessed.  The Curriculum Committee and the faculty in the departments will discuss information from these instruments.  Discussions about changes that may need to be made to the program will begin.

The other above listed annual assessment projects will continue.

Submitted by Dr. Susan Hyland
Associate Dean
School of Veterinary Medicine.