Effect of immediate student evaluations on a multi-instructor course

Immediate student feedback and peer evaluation by a single physician were used to evaluate and monitor an interdisciplinary multi-instructor course. Clinical Correlations with Pathology is taught during the second year of medical school by 50 instructors, each of whom has a limited exposure to sophomore medical students. The format of the course, in which the same students evaluate multiple lecturers in multiple content areas, provided a unique opportunity to demonstrate the reliability and validity of student evaluations. About one-half of the lectures were repeated by the same instructors the following year to the next class of medical students, who also evaluated all of the lectures. Comparison of two consecutive sophomore classes of medical students documented overall course improvement and showed higher ratings given to instructors who presented the same lecture both years. Student evaluation is a powerful technique that can result in positive changes leading toward course improvement.