Phase Review Guidelines

The different phases of the curriculum (both Foundations phases (Year 1 and Year 2) and Clinical phases (Core clinical rotations and clinical electives)) will be reviewed once every four years in a schedule outlined by the Curriculum Committee.

The goal of the phase review is to ensure that instructional methodology and content of each phase is academically sound and in step with the mission of the SOM. The review will include the gathering of data from the Curriculum Subcommittee reviews of each course/clerkship, including analysis of aggregate student feedback, assessment data, faculty reflections, comparability, learning objectives and mapping, clinical experience completion, resources, previous improvement plan and sequencing.

It is important to emphasize that the review process is not intended to be threatening but rather to be helpful and constructive. Confidentiality must also be maintained throughout the process. All deliberations and reports must be kept confidential.  The review would accompany only Curriculum related issues, objectives, teaching methods and evaluation. Faculty Evaluation and administration matters of the department are not included.

PHASE REVIEW PROCESS

Phase reviews will be organized and will proceed according to a schedule as follows:

1. The Chair of the Curriculum Committee will appoint a Chair of the Review Committee. The Chair must be a member of the Curriculum Committee and not be a faculty member that is responsible for a large amount of teaching or administration with the phase that is being reviewed. Following the selection of the Chair, the members of the Review Committee are selected. The members are selected by the Chair of the Review Committee. There must be a minimum of six members and there must be representation of faculty from each of the four phases as well as student representation (see Appendix A). Once all the Review Committee members have been selected the names are passed to the Curriculum Committee for approval. The Curriculum Committee has the opportunity to appeal any of the members if they suspect there is a conflict of interest.
2. It is the responsibility of the Chair of the Review Committee to establish at the outset clear expectations for each of the members.
3. The Chair of the Review Committee should consult the Course/clerkship directors of the Phase about the criteria, expectations and timetable of the review process.
4. The Chair of the Review Committee should collect and make available to the committee all the relevant course or clerkship review reports.

5. The Course Director should also make the following materials available to the review team:

   1. Full access to all course Sakai sites

   2. All Course/Clerkship objectives and curriculum mapping

   3. Analysis of aggregate student feedback

   4. Assessment data

   5. Faculty reflections

   6. Comparability

   7. Clinical experience completion

   8. Teaching resources

   9. Previous improvement plan

6. The main review process will be conducted over a period of 1-2 weeks where any live interviews will be conducted and the resources provided are discussed by the review committee.
7. Each member of the review team will be required to submit a provisional individual written reports to the Chair of Review Committee within a week of the final live meeting.
8. The Chair of the Review Committee will compose a final report using the individual team members reports as guidance. This report will be presented to the Student Assessment and Program Evaluation Subcommittee for review.
9. The Student Assessment and Program Evaluation Subcommittee then will work with the Course Director to propose an improvement plan based on the recommendations of the Review Committee.
10. The improvement plan is presented to the Curriculum Committee along with the data from the Review Committee.
11. Once the improvement plan has been approved by the Curriculum Committee it is forwarded (along with the data) to the dean for approval.
12. The improvement plan is then implemented.