Student evaluation of teaching and assessment methods in pharmacology

BACKGROUND: The students are in the best position to comment on the effectiveness of any teaching system and they may be regarded as the best judges to assess the teaching and evaluation methods. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to obtain student feedback on teaching and assessment methods in the subject of pharmacology and use it for improvement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Based on student feedback from batch 2006, innovative strategies were implemented. To know the effect of these strategies feedback was obtained from subsequent batch 2007 using a written validated questionnaire covering various aspects of teaching and assessment methods. RESULTS: Students were satisfied with all teaching methods except lecture, seminars and pharmacy exercises. Majority of the students showed preference for tutorials, short answer questions and revision classes. All students felt that there should be more time for clinical pharmacology and bedside teaching. The performance score of the students (batch 2007) indicated improvement in their scores (12%) when earlier feedback suggestions were implemented. The pass percentage of the subsequent batch in university examinations improved from 90 to 100%. CONCLUSION: The implementation of suggestions obtained from students resulted in improvement in their performance. Hence, it is very essential to synchronize teaching and evaluation methods with special requirements of medical students.