Department of Public Health and Forensic Sciences and Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
CINTESIS - Center for Research in Health Technologies and Information Systems. Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
BMC Med Educ. 2020 Nov 23;20(1):449. doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-02269-0.
Electives are perceived by medical students as a valuable, highly regarded experience, allowing them to customize learning experiences and enabling them to early differentiate during medical training. The present work aims to uncover students' major determinants of satisfaction and how they interfere with their future elective choices in order to identify the best approach to implement electives in medical curricula.
A cross-sectional study was conducted through a written evaluation survey concerning the electives available in the academic year 2015-2016. Our institution provides 106 electives to students from the 2 to the 5 year. Students' satisfaction was assessed through a validated questionnaire with eight sentences expressing opinions related to electives global satisfaction. Data from 538 inquiries from 229 students were analyzed quantitatively using regression and correlation models, and qualitatively through phenomenography.
Quantitative analysis of the questionnaires allowed to establish both: 1) The determinants of students' satisfaction with electives, which were Agreement with teaching and learning methodologies, followed by Agreement with assessment methodologies employed, Perception of the workload demanded and Requirement for continuous work and 2) The predictors of students preferences in the following years, namely, Agreement with assessment methodologies employed, Classes attendance and Ranking of the allocated elective established in the previous year. Qualitative analysis of questionnaires revealed that students consider electives as being innovative and interesting, claiming that some, for their relevant content, could be integrated into the medical core curriculum.
Our work raises awareness on the best practices when it comes to electives' organization to meet students' satisfaction. We can conclude that medical schools should measure students satisfaction as a tool to organize and predict future needs of electives and placements when designing and implementing this alternative student-centred curriculum or even to improve the existing practices regarding electives in medical courses.
选修课被医学生视为一种有价值且备受推崇的学习体验，使他们能够定制学习经历，并在医学培训早期就有所区分。本研究旨在揭示学生对满意度的主要决定因素，以及这些因素如何影响他们未来的选修选择，从而确定在医学课程中实施选修课的最佳方法。
通过对 2015-2016 学年提供的选修课进行书面评估调查，进行了一项横断面研究。我们的机构为 2 至 5 年级的学生提供了 106 门选修课。学生的满意度通过一份经过验证的问卷进行评估，问卷中有 8 个句子表达了与选修课总体满意度相关的意见。对 229 名学生的 538 次查询的数据进行了定量分析，使用回归和相关模型，并通过现象学进行了定性分析。
对问卷的定量分析确定了学生对选修课满意度的决定因素，这些因素包括：1）对教学和学习方法的认同，其次是对所采用的评估方法的认同、对所要求的工作量的感知以及对持续工作的要求；2）对学生在未来几年偏好的预测因素，即对所采用的评估方法的认同、上课出勤率和前一年分配的选修课的排名。对问卷的定性分析表明，学生认为选修课具有创新性和趣味性，并声称其中一些由于其相关内容，可以纳入医学核心课程。
我们的工作提高了对选修课组织以满足学生满意度的最佳实践的认识。我们可以得出结论，医学院校在设计和实施这种以学生为中心的替代课程时，应该将学生满意度作为衡量工具，以组织和预测未来的选修和实习需求，甚至改进医学课程中选修课的现有实践。
