EVALUATION OF EDUCATION PROGRAMMES IN

NURSING COURSE AND PROGRAMMES.

INTRODUCTION:-

Education aims at an all-round development of a student and not merely imparting

knowledge to him. The concept of evaluation in education is of the teacher must clearly
understand its importance and acquire an adequate knowledge of the necessary techniques.
Evaluation is an essential part of teaching and learning. Evaluation in education is the
process of the judging the effectiveness of educational experience through careful appraisal
or involves measurement but it different from it.

Definition:

Evaluation is the process of determining to what extent the educational objectives are being
realized. - Ralph Tyles.

Evaluation is a systemic examination of educational and social programs.

- Conbaeh

Purposes of evaluation in Nursing.

The teacher of nursing students should have complete program of evaluation, which should
be considered as an integral, continuous part of teaching, which enables them to accomplish
the following important purposes.

 To determine the level of knowledge and understanding of the student in her/his

classes at various times during the year or semester.
 To determine the level of the student's clinical performances at various stages.
 To become aware of the specific difficulties of individual students of an entire class.
 To diagnose each students strength and weakness and to suggest remedial measure
which may be needed.
 To encourage students learning by measuring their achievement and inform them of
their success.
 To help students to acquire the attitude of and skills in self-evaluation.
  To provide the additional motivation of examinations.
 To gather information needed for administrate purposes.

An evaluation of nursing educational programme

Program evaluation is a comprehensive and complex process. Program evaluation is a

comprehensive approach to program improvement that includes curriculum evaluation and
assessment.

Some Definitions:

Nursing educational program - is any academic program in a poise secondary institution

leading to initial licensure or advanced preparation in nursing.

Program evaluation - is the assessment of all components of a program, from program

planning through implementation, to determine program effectiveness.

Program evaluation plan - is a document that serves as the blueprint for the evaluation of a
specific program.

Functions of evaluation of educational program:

 To provide a basis for the modification of the curriculum, syllabus or courses.

 It forms a basis for the introduction of experience to meet the needs of the students.
 To motivate pupils towards better attainment, growth and development.
 To pin point areas were remedial measures are needed
 To make provision for guiding the growth of individual pupils
 To diagnose the weakness and strength of the programme.
 To improve instructional activities and educational programme.
 To test the effecting of teachers in providing learning experience and effectiveness of
instruction and classroom activities.
 To achieve educational goals.
 It helps to know the rate of progress in different areas of learning.
 To bring out the capabilities of a student eg: attitudes, habits skills etc.
Purposes and Benefits of Program Evaluation:-

The primary purpose of program evaluation is to judge the merit or worth of the total
program being evaluated, as well as the individual elements of that program

Specific purposes of program evaluation are as follows

 To determine how various elements of the program interact and influence

program effectiveness
 To determine the extent to which the mission, goals, and outcomes of the
program are realized
 To determine whether the program has been implemented as planned
 To identify efficient use or resources to assess and improve program quality
 To provide a rationale for decision making that that leads to improved program
effectiveness

AN EVALUATION OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME

l. The program evaluation plan

It provides a road map for organizing and tracking evaluation activities. The plan is a written
document that contains the evaluation frame work, activities for gathering and analysing
data, responsible parties, time frames and the means of using information for program
decisions. The program evaluation plan provides the mechanism for maintaining continuous
evaluation of program effectiveness. Although the plan should stand on its own merit,
nursing faculty may find it useful to match accreditation criteria throughout the plan to
ensure compliance with accrediting bodies’ expectations, before the plan can be developed,
accountability for program evaluation activities must be understood and defined

2. Accountability for program evaluation

Responsibility for development and implementation of the program evaluation plan rests
with the nursing faculty. A common approach in small and moderate sized nursing
schools is to appoint a standing committee of faculty who provide leadership and co-
ordination of evaluation efforts. Regardless of plan the nursing faculty must determine
accountability for each element of the evaluation plan. It concern is the reporting and
recording of evaluation of data. Information is of little value to decision making unless it is
channelled to those who are responsible for making decisions. Evaluation data also
serves as a rich resource when responses to external reports and accreditation expectations
are required.

The location of evaluation information is also important. An official location for evaluation
reports ensures that they can be found when they are needed. Advances in technology have
made the development of computer data bases an important source of information.

Finally the outcome of evaluation efforts in terms of creating change is an element that is
sometimes omitted in record keeping. Accrediting bodies are as concerned about the actions
that result from analysis of evaluation data as they are that a plan is in place.

3. Curriculum Evaluation

One of the most critical elements of program effectiveness is curriculum design. It provides
direction to both the content of the program and the teaching and learning process involved in
program implementation. Faculty must determine what ways of knowing, or methods of
enquiry, are characteristics of the discipline and what skills the disciplines demands.
Program goals and outcome statement provide a guide for the development of the program of
study.

4. Evaluation of teaching effectiveness

It involves assessment of teaching strategies, assessment of methods used to evaluate

students’ performance, and assessment of student learning. Teaching strategies are effective
when students are engaged, when strategies assist students to achieve the course
objectives, and when strategies provide opportunities for students to use prior knowledge in
building new knowledge. Teaching effectiveness improves when teaching strategies are
modified on the basis of evaluation data. To demonstrate and document teaching
effectiveness, faculty needs multiple evaluation methods. These are

a. Student evaluation of teaching strategies

The institution or nursing department may develop course evaluations to obtain

student feedback on teaching effec6veness. The advantage of internally developed
evaluations is that they can be customized to the program.
A focus group discussion with students can provide a more qualitative assessment of
teaching effectiveness. The focus leader should an impartial individual with the skill
evaluation to conduct the lesson. The leader should clearly state the purpose of the session,
ensure confidentiality, provide clear guidelines about the type of information being sought
and explained how information will be used

b. Peer review of teaching strategies

Peer and colleague review may provide information on teaching effectiveness through
classroom observation and assessment of course materials. Before peer review, is
implemented, there is a need to be clear about what data will be gathered, about who will
have access to the data and for what purposes it will be used. Faculty and administrators, as
stakeholders in the endeavour, should collaborate to establish the norms and standards. Data
from peer review may be used prescriptively to assist faculty in developing and improving
teaching skills. Some schools required both classroom visits and opportunities to observe
master teachers for all new faculty and periodic class room visits for all faculty thereafter. In
some schools the observation of teaching is voluntary. The age of the class room as the
private domain of the teacher is disappearing rapidly and both accountability and
the opportunity to demonstrate the scholarship of teaching are causing colleges and
universities to require increase documentation of teaching as a routine part of the evaluation
process.

5. Evaluation of teaching and learning materials.

Materials commonly included for review are the course syllabus, text books and reading lists,
teaching plans, teaching or learning aids, assignments, and outcome measures. In all cases,
the materials are reviewed for congruence with the course objectives, appropriateness to
the level of the learner, content scope and depth, clarity, organization and evidence of
usefulness in advancing students toward goals of the course.

 Formal measures for evaluating teaching strategies:

Formal objective measures of teaching strategies might include experimental or quasi

experimental designs, with randomization of subjects and control of treatments

 Assessment of student learning:

It is unacceptable to claim that teaching strategies are effective unless there is evidence that
links the teaching transaction with student learning. Assessment within the classroom
provides evidence for interim outcome evaluation.

Evaluation refers to outcomes of specific learning episodes, course outcomes, or level

outcomes of specific assessed at the conclusion of the program of learning.

 Evaluating student performance:

Multiple choice examinations are a common, cost effective method of testing knowledge
acquisition as progress in a course and at the conclusion of the course and program.

6. Outcome evaluation

The purpose of outcome evaluation is to determine how well the program has achieved the
expected outcomes. Program outcome measures are those implemented at the conclusion of
the program.

 Student outcomes

Student outcomes are measured at multiple levels in the program of learning. Student
learning outcomes deal with attributes of the learner that demonstrate achievement of
program goals.

 Employer, product utilization and satisfaction

Employer service provides a means to determine the extent to which the consumer believes
the product has the skills necessary for employment expectations. Feedback from employers
provides useful data for program review.

Brief demographic information about the nature of the agency is helpful in learning
which settings use the program graduates and which expressed concerns or recommendations
may be specific to a given setting. Employer survey is the identification or which
stakeholders are in the best position to respond to particular questions.

Obtaining ongoing feedback about the graduates of as program is to establish an advisory

committee or consumers from agencies the typically employ program alumni. Such
committees often provide advice and council on multiple matters but satisfaction with the
product and advise about the changing needs of the market place or traditional agenda items
for such a group.
AN EVALVATION OF NURSING COURSE

Because of the interrelatedness of teaching learning and evaluation, it was thought

desirable to discuss all of these in relation to a complete evaluation program. That should
be used by a teacher of a nursing course. A complete evaluation programme includes.

1. Evaluation of objectives:

a) Experts and implicit objectives: The teaching learning objectives for each course
should have been selected and stated . In planning curricula, must faculty prepare a
general statement of objectives for each general curriculum area. If she fails to state
explicitly the teaching learning objectives for her course it means that the objectives
intrinsic to the actual teaching practices provide the guides for instruction and student
learning.

If the explicit and implicit objectives do coincide, which is only to say that the daily content
and activities in the teaching learning situation are obviously related to and dictated guides
not only to the teacher but also to the students as well without such definitive guides
no meaningful evaluation can take place.

b) Behaviour definition of objectives: The first step on both teachers and evaluation is
the behaviour definition of objectives that is the definition of the changes in behaviour
expected as a result educative experience. The purpose in educational objectives is to
effect certain desirable changes in student behaviour.

Stating educational objectives is expressing the ideal or desirable status of the students.
Behaviour commonly selected for educational objectives in nursing on. The behaviours
selected should be stated in relation to the specific content knowledge or area of life situation
in which the behaviours are expected to operate.

c) Evaluation of Teaching Learning objectives: All teachers need to determine from time
to time whether their teaching learning objectives are adequate. This calls for evaluation for
the every act of choosing or rejecting or even keeping objectives is an act of evaluation.
However, it is not sufficient merely to make a subjective judgment; the teacher should
engage in such activities as well help her to check or supplement her subjective
judgement.

Ex:
• Examine performance of students in various sections may show strengths or weakness
in respect to some teaching learning aims, suggesting stronger or diminished emphasis or
curtailment or elimination of the aim

• Asking the question as to whether each aim is reasonably attainable. Objectives may have to
be adjusted to meet the needs of different groups of students.

• Considering the adequacy of students prior knowledge and skills to the course in question

• Determining whether all of the stated teaching learning objectives are in reality being
attained

2. Evaluation of teaching learning methods

It is not sufficient for the teacher to evaluate the stated teaching - learning objectives; she
must evaluate the means that she uses to achieve these objectives. Therefore the various
procedures teaching – learning should be evaluated in the stated objectives and the student
learning outcomes

e.g.: A teacher who uses the lecture method may find, on evaluation of learning outcomes
that her students had gained knowledge but were unable to apply their knowledge in the
solution of the new problems therefore she may decide to try some other procedure in
addition to or in place of the lecture method such as a discussion technique.

3. Evaluation of the student’s progress in learning

If the teacher assumes responsibility for helping the students to achieve certain aims and
objectives of education. She also assumes responsibility for determining the extent to which
they have achieved these goals at the various stages one aspects of evaluation of the student is
exploration and discovery. To determine with as great reliability as possible the capacities,
the tendencies; the interests, the attitudes, the needs, the purposes, the aptitudes and the likes
of each student.

Basically, essential purpose in such exploration is to furnish the school and the teacher
herself with information can serve as a starting point of true evaluation

The really important objective is not attainable within a short period of time certainly not
with in the confine of a single course or even in one year, therefore the teacher needs to
develop and organization
The teacher can help her students to have more accumulative integrative learning experiences
by evaluating the kinds of relationships perceived by the students as they go through each
course. The principle of individual difference needs to be growth, when evaluating both the
rate and amount of growth when evaluating each student

Formal means of evaluation

Evaluation of student progress in learning may be accomplished by formal i.e., tests, rating,
scales etc.

Informal means of evaluation

A student acquired interest in the particular course and in nursing and has formed her
attitudes her teacher and associated towards patients and their families towards the various
personnel involved in patient care, are part of the sum of educational experience not always
revealed by testing

a. Observation of students
By observing students every day, a sustained, cumulative and often more trust worthy
appraisal of students can be obtained than through only intermittent student appraisal.
In small classes the teacher, obviously will be able to observe individual students
more early than in large classes. Even in large classes exceptionally good or poor
students are noticed quickly and the teacher can give a cleaner perception of each
student through a gradual, continuous sorting out process making a tentative estimable
of each students worth and correcting the estimates on the basis of further
observation. Thus the teacher should give close attention as possible to monitor
individual progress. She should record her impression by keeping brief notation.

b. The teachers own estimation

The personal elements is seldom absent from evaluation no matter how impersonal
the instrument employed. Even objectives tests have to be prepared by someone and
therefore represents someone to interpret it. The role of judgment is not to displace
the more objective method but to combine with them. Lending support to evaluation,
in all courses outcomes not otherwise measureable con do some extent be evaluated
subjectively. The good teachers are no better than her teaching. With increasing
 understanding of student and their needs the teachers’’ ability to teach and to judge
students fairly and sympathetically will increase like wise.

c. Students reaction to learning

Whether the teacher admits it or not, students evaluate both teaching and learning, and
therefore enlistment of their evaluation may be helpful. Supplementing other
evaluative data, information finished by students may assist in diagnostic of strengths
and weaknesses in learning and provide a basis for the guidance of students. The
student’s attitudes purposes abilities and interests choosing procedures. The student
herself should be concerned about her progress the conditions under which she must
work and the results of her efforts
Information may be obtained from students through interviews, talking with students
in groups and by means of questionnaire the teacher can produce a questionnaire to fit
for purpose its use will be worthwhile provided that students understand and accept it
as a part of a larger process of self-examination
d. Reaction of others
In addition to student reaction to learning frequently the teacher can gather
information by getting the reactions of theirs such as teachers administrators parents
etc. the interested teacher can get information from teachers who have the students in
classes following her course, which may help her to gain additional insights as to how
students learn how well they retain and use their knowledge, what they are satisfied
with and what they complain about, conferences with students and when necessary
with medical, psychological and other specialized advisers, will help the teacher to
have a better understanding of the needs of her students.

4. Evaluation of outcomes
When the teacher views the outcomes of teaching and learning experiences in her
course she will find that some of the objectives have been attained and that some have
not. The readily satisfied are those who expect little. Moreover, the teaching process
may have enlarged the teacher’s view by what could be possible or desirable:
consequently, she wishes that she had tried to achieve more. She will find some
outcomes that she didn’t intend. Some of them good some undesirable protect
correlation between objectives and outcomes in seldom if ever achieved
The decisions have to objectives the selection of educational experiences and the
organization of these require many judgements. The total educational experience of
the course involving all of these factors is sufficiently complex, that an overall
evaluation is required to tell whether it has been a successful education experience.
Evaluation is important to make provision at the end of a course for tasks of more
complex integrative nature than the earlier once
 To determine the students ability to apply her knowledge to different
situations
 To give consideration to the students who is now performing at a high level
even though at earlier stages she has considerable difficulty
 To determine whether the student has an adequate base of knowledge and skill
and pass on to the next state of her learning

If the final exam does not provide sufficient time to make such evaluations other
projects may be devised for this purpose. For e.g. case studies, senior seminar projects
can provide an integrating experiences as well as serves as a mean of evaluation
Bibliography:

 Basavanthappa B. T "Nursing Education" lst edition, New Delhi, Jaypee Brothers

publishers, 2003. Pp no: 125-26.
 K.P. Neeraja. Textbook of Nursing Education,1st edition, New Delhi, Jaypee Brothers
Medical Publishers (p) Ltd. 2007, page no, 404 – 440
 Loretta E. Heidgerken. Teaching and learning in schools of Nursing, 13 th edition, Delhi
Konark Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2004 pg no 637 – 643
 Lynne. E. Young et al, Teaching Nursing, 1 st edition, New York, Lippincott Wilkins, Pvt
Ltd 2007, pg no 255 – 257
 Diane M. Billings and Judith A Halstead, Teaching in Nursing, 2 nd edition, U.S., Elsiever,
Saunders, 2005, pg no 543 - 590

WEBSITES:
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JOURNALS:
 Indian Journal of Holistic Nursing "Curriculum Implementation" Vol:l , May 1,2005,
P no:8-9