A systematic approach in design, planning and implementation of purposeful faculty empowerment program

Considering the role and importance of faculty members in promoting education as one of the major aspects of university life, paying attention to the educational empowerment of faculty members is an inevitable necessity. This study was conducted to design a comprehensive inter-university educational empowerment program for faculty members of six universities of medical sciences in Iran.

The present study was started as a scholarship process in 2018, and the 6 steps of Kern’s model were employed for its educational planning. First, in two stages of needs assessment (general level and target group), the dimensions of the program and the educational needs of the target group were determined. In the next step, the goals of the Purposeful Faculty Empowerment Program (PFEP) were defined and, based on them, educational strategies, including content and methods, were planned in the form of the PFEP document. In the following stages, the program entered the implementation phase and its effectiveness was evaluated.

The results of two stages of needs assessment at the general and the target group levels led to the formulation of PFEP needs assessment guidelines and the targeted educational capabilities, after which the educational topics of the PFEP were determined. The educational content related to each of the workshop topics and the method of holding the empowerment course were compiled as separate instructions for PFEP courses. The results of the formative evaluation of each PFEP course were published as final reports of each course, and the information obtained from it was used to improve future courses.

This study led to the formulation of a comprehensive program for educational empowerment in six universities of medical sciences in Iran. The methods of planning and implementing this course can be a model for other universities to hold inter-university educational empowerment courses