The Impact of the Faculty Development Workshop on Educational Research Abilities of Faculties in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Background: Faculty development programs have received considerable investment of resources from medical institutions, though the effect and output of them has been infrequently studied. This study was design to measure the effect of the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences’ faculty development workshops. Methods: Three faculty development workshops on educational research were conducted to improve the skills of medical instructors. The Kirkpatrick evaluation model tailored to our program was used to assess the outcomes. We asked participants to evaluate their satisfaction with the program at the end of the session. The changes in the participants’ knowledge were studied with a 15 question questionnaire at the beginning and end of the program. On the third level, we compared the number of educational project which were submitted by participants after the workshop to assess participants’ application of learning in the workplace. Results: The participants highly rated the quality of the program and felt that the workshop had a positive impact on their abilities. Assessment showed that the increase in the participants’ cognitive knowledge between the pre-test and post-test was a significant (p=0.005). Seven educational proposals were submitted by participants, which indicate a significant increases in the application of learning. Conclusions:Our faculty development workshop appears to have positive effect on medical faculties’ educational research performance, and we suggest that our educational intervention is effective in achieving its aims.