A model for the evaluation of allied health education

The variety and complexity of evaluation designs, procedures and philosophies has proved confusing for educators and health practitioners. Many evaluation models do not provide for the scope of information needed by allied health programs and are inflexible in regard to the information needs of individual programs. The model presented here is based on the principles of "Systems Theory," which provides a comprehensive framework for the study of educational programs. Input, process, product and environment components are proposed as a method to study all aspects of program operations. With clearly definable rules for the evaluator and program decision-makers, the faculty can adopt and change the course of the evaluation as they work through the planning, implementation and recycling stages of the model. Use of the model should help programs identify information needs and bring existing evaluation efforts together under a comprehensive umbrella.