Design, implementation, and evaluation of Students as Partners interactive feedback model.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Professions Education
• Educational Technology

Background:

• Traditional end-of-term course feedback surveys often yield limited actionable change.
• The rapid shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for adaptive educational strategies.
• Dental students and faculty sought innovative methods to address emerging technical and curricular challenges in online education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design, implement, and evaluate a real-time feedback system to address instructional issues in dental education.
• To enhance the transparency and effectiveness of student feedback in the online learning environment.
• To foster a collaborative 'Students as Partners' approach for continuous curriculum improvement.

Main Methods:

• An action research methodology was employed to iteratively refine the feedback model.
• A real-time feedback system, initially a basic model and later enhanced with Padlet, was developed.
• Surveys were distributed to students and faculty to assess awareness, satisfaction, and the program's effectiveness.

Main Results:

• The refined system, utilizing Padlet, significantly increased student awareness of how their feedback influenced course changes.
• A majority of students felt the program provided a valuable platform for their voices to be heard.
• Most faculty respondents reported implementing curriculum or content modifications based on student feedback.

Conclusions:

• The Students as Partners (SaP) real-time feedback system successfully closed the feedback loop, enabling timely and actionable improvements in dental education.
• This innovative approach demonstrated the value of integrating student feedback for immediate instructional enhancement in an online setting.
• The study represents a novel contribution to real-time feedback systems aimed at modifying teaching practices in health professions education.