Curriculum Management, Evaluation, and Enhancement

Rationale

The Executive Curriculum Committee and its subcommittees is responsible for ongoing monitoring, review, and revision of all aspects of the curriculum to assure achievement of the institutional learning objectives. Our continuous quality improvement process uses internal and external data and national norms to identify opportunities for curricular enhancement and modification.

Programmatic level assessment is undertaken by the curriculum committees to evaluate the overall quality and outcomes of the curriculum to provide the best medical education program possible. Curriculum review allows for identification of gaps or unwanted redundancy and coordination across the curriculum to resolve these issues. The Brody School of Medicine uses a tiered approach for course and clerkship review as described below. The ECC can request an in-depth review at any time.

Scope

Compliance with this policy is mandatory for Brody School of Medicine Office of Medical Education (OME), Curriculum Committees, course and clerkship directors and coordinators, and departmental faculty and chairs with courses and clerkships in the core curriculum for undergraduate medical students.

Definitions

3-Year Course and Clerkship Review: A formal review process conducted by faculty, staff, and students associated with the BSOM curriculum with administrative support from the OME to review the achievement of objectives, content, quality, and to make recommendations to the Executive Curriculum Committee to ensure continuous quality improvement of the curriculum.
To better evaluate broad curricular trends, all curriculum delivered in a designated timeframe is reviewed together.

Annual Review/Preview: An annual meeting, facilitated by the OME, of the course or clerkship director, course or clerkship coordinator, OME, and department chair in which the course is housed to review quantitative and qualitative data from the previous academic year and discuss planned changes for the upcoming academic year.

Continuous Quality Improvement: A systematic approach to the analysis of performance and efforts leading to improved educational quality and outcomes.

Course/Clerkship 3-year Review Subcommittee: A small group composed of some members of the Curriculum Committee and ex officio support members as defined below.

ECC: Executive Curriculum Committee

OME: The Office of Medical Education

CD: Course or Clerkship Director

Responsibilities

Composition of 3-year Review Committee

• Administrative support from OME (Associate Dean or designee)
• All course/clerkship directors from the relevant phase of the curriculum. A CD cannot serve as chair of a review pertaining to their own course.
• The clerkship review subcommittee will appoint an additional basic scientist; All foundational science courses will appoint an additional clinician
• 2-3 student representatives to represent students and report results from a convened panel of students
• Other faculty as indicated- community preceptor, component director
• The director and coordinator of the courses/clerkships under review will serve as resources to the review committee

Responsibilities of the Review Committee

• Read course material prepared by Chair, CD, OME including the pre-report
• Read all student course/clerkship evaluations
• Read prior report and recommendations to ensure areas of prior concern have been addressed
• Meet with CD and coordinator
• Perform a SWOT analysis and make recommendations for quality improvement
• Generate a written report with the assistance of OME

Report Distribution and Response

• CD and department chair
• OME, Senior Associate Dean, Dean
• Appropriate curriculum committee and ECC
• Recommendations approved or amended by year and ECC as appropriate
• Response from Department Chair and CD – Any clarifications regarding report content must be requested in writing within 14 days and participate with annual follow-up reports and meetings on progress

Procedures for Implementation and Review

Annual Review

Each year the course and clerkship directors and affiliated coordinators perform a self-assessment (Review/Preview Form) describing the overall performance and quality of the completed courses and clerkships and seek approval for significant changes. As a component of this yearly review, objectives, required experiences, and assessment methods are described and presented to the committee along with evaluations and qualitative data. Course and Clerkship Directors and Department Chairs must also provide an update on progress toward implementation of the final recommendations from the prior in-depth (3-Year) review.

The Associate Dean for Medical Education or designee summarizes these reports to the appropriate year curriculum subcommittee and final reports are reviewed by the ECC. Outcome data including NBME/USMLE scores are reviewed regularly in appropriate year subcommittees and at the Executive Curriculum Committee level to assess overall outcomes as well as to evaluate for comparable student experiences where applicable.

3-year Review

An in-depth review is completed on a three-year cyclical basis but may be completed sooner than three years at the request of the ECC based on institutional needs or concerns. To facilitate evaluation of broad curricular issues, the curriculum will be divided into the following groups for review together: Block 1, which roughly corresponds with the traditional M1 Fall semester, Blocks 2 and 3, which corresponds with the traditional M1 Spring semester, and Block 4, which includes all of the M2 curriculum. The ECC oversees the review process and reviews the full report from the year level subcommittee. The ECC appoints ad-hoc committees to perform the course and clerkship reviews and generate reports with administrative support from the Office of Medical Education.

The subcommittee will generate a report summarizing their findings and list their recommendations based on review of internal and external data, national norming data, cross-course comparison, student performance data, evaluations of the course/clerkship by students, and qualitative data. The full report and recommendations will be reviewed by the year level subcommittee and will be presented to the ECC for approval or modification. The report and recommendations will be communicated to OME, the Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, the Dean, and the Chairs of the relevant departments. Progress towards completion of recommendations will be tracked on a semi-annual basis and a follow-up report will be communicated on a yearly basis.

See Appendix

1. Course/Clerkship Committee Process
2. Course/Clerkship Review Report Template
3. Review Process Checklist and Data Checklist

Related Policies

Course and Clerkship Director Responsibilities SOP
Curricular Changes Requiring Executive Curriculum Committee Approval SOP

Applicable Laws, Regulations & Standards

LCME 8.3