Needs assessment and evaluation of a short course to improve faculties teaching skills at a former World Health Organization regional teacher training center

Introduction: In the design of educational programs, much attentionhas been paid to teaching methods, needs assessment, an importantpart of the development of educational programs, generally isneglected. Another important aspect in educational program design isassessing effectiveness. The aims of this study were to design a formalneeds assessment program to define the core contents of a facultydevelopment program, and to determine whether participation in thefaculty development program reinforced new teaching skills.Methods: A teacher-training program was designed at ShirazUniversity of Medical Sciences to help medical instructors boosttheir teaching skills. Needs assessment was done with nominal grouptechnique followed by a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. Theprogram, imparted in workshop format, covered effective teachingmethods, feedback, assessing knowledge and time management.Instruction was in the form of lectures, group discussions, casesimulations, video presentations and role-plays. The program wasevaluated in several phases using data triangulation and multi-itemassessments of overall program quality in three major dimensions:Kirkpatrick program evaluation model, evaluation of theeducational environment and qualitative analysis with open-endedquestions. All participants in the study belonged to the academicstaff of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (n=396).Results: Seven main categories were derived from nominal grouptechniques and questionnaires. After the program, participantsrated the quality of the program highly. They felt that the educationalintervention was appropriate and had a positive impact on theirknowledge of effective teaching methods, feedback, knowledgeassessment and time management. Assessment of the effectivenessof the program showed that participants reported significantimprovements in their teaching abilities.Conclusion: Our faculty development program have a significantpositive effect on medical university teaching staff members’competencies. Further research is needed to investigate whetherthe faculty development program actually results in improvedteaching performance.Keywords: Faculty, Teaching, Effectiveness, Assessment, Needs assessment