Short Courses of faculty development: A pathway to improve educational skills and learning transfer of faculty members to educational environments

Short-term faculty development courses are one of the ways to improve faculty members' educational skills at universities. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of short-term faculty development courses on faculty members' educational skills.

 The present study is a cross sectional study. In this study, faculty members of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences who participated in the courses were entered in the study. The course were developed through the literature review and the views of the experts. The educational objectives developed based on the expected roles of the faculty members in universities. The course is designed in three axes, including educational planning, teaching-learning methods, and assessment. The active learning methods were used, including Jigsaw, case-based learning, and small group discussion. Program evaluation is done by assessing learner satisfaction, learning, and transferring learning to the educational environment. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

 In the present study, 78 faculty members participated in the short-term faculty development courses. Four times faculty development courses have been implemented in in 2017-2019. The results of the present study showed that the participants were satisfied with the courses (4.57±0.15) and their performance on scenario-based questions was in the high level (8.57±2.96). Participants assessed their learning transfer to real situation in the higher than medium level. (±3.73 0.36)

Evaluation of the Short-term courses reported in acceptable level for improving participants’ performance. The results of the present study showed that short-term development courses could be used as a solution to improve faculty members' teaching skills and applying what they have learned in real-world settings.