Evaluations in Foundations - Requirements and Frequently Asked Questions

As a general rule, you have 15 days from the end of the learning activity (e.g., course, clinical experience, lecture).

While we try to keep the system up to date, sometimes there are last-minute changes in instructors. If an evaluation you completed indicated it was for the incorrect teacher, please contact medsis.ume@utoronto.ca to correct this and ensure the intended teacher receives your feedback.

We are actively working with the MedSIS developer to address this and expect it to be completed before the summer of 2025. Until this work is completed, please do not use the MedSIS count down as the 15-day marker. We recommend setting your own calendar reminders for completing evaluations, or completing evaluations ASAP after the end of a learning activity. The Office of Assessment and Evaluation will also send reminders (when possible), outlining what the 15 days mark is.

On the evaluations page in MedSIS, set your Status filter to Completed.

The 'blank box' or drop-down menu saying "Select a teacher.." will appear for any on-demand evaluation form.

On-demand forms are available to provide you with the opportunity to evaluate a teacher when a dedicated generated form isn’t available. For example, if you wanted to submit an evaluation for a lecture you attended but you were not assigned to evaluate lectures that day, you can select the relevant teacher from the drop-down menu of the Foundation Lecture (On-demand) form and complete the evaluation.

In an attempt to reduce evaluation fatigue, and in consultation with student representatives, we are piloting a new approach to evaluating lectures in foundations. We have used random stratified sampling to create 3 representative groups (based on academy and gender) for each cohort, and each group is assigned to evaluate lectures for separate, rotating lecture days. In effect, each student will only be asked to complete lecture evaluations roughly once every three lecture days. This will result in approximately 50 fewer evaluations shared with each foundations student in comparison to the 2023-24 academic year.

To ensure equitable access to evaluations, we have also created an on-demand form in MedSIS that students can use to complete evaluations for lectures that occurred on days when they were not assigned to provide feedback. This way, students will still be able to evaluate any lecture they attend, but will only be asked to evaluate 1/3 of them. Please review the auto-generated lecture evaluations available to you before using the on-demand form. This will help make sure you ONLY use the on-demand lecture evaluations for sessions where an evaluation form was not already generated and available to you.

If there are unique circumstances that would merit this, you can contact medsis.ume@utoronto.ca to inquire about editing your previously completed evaluation.

A single low professionalism score will not appear on your Medical Student Permanent Record (MSPR) or impact your CaRMS applications.

Three or more low professionalism assessments would lead to a referral to the MD Program Professionalism Lead, and this referral could be documented in your record. For further details about professionalism assessments and your MSPR, we encourage you to review the professionalism guidelines here, or contact the Professionalism Theme Lead (note, a single low professionalism assessment from not completing required evaluations will not result in a Check-in).

If you cannot see your open evaluations, access MedSIS, or are having other technical difficulties, please contact md.oae@utoronto.ca and/or medsis.ume@utoronto.ca as soon as possible. Including screenshots of the problem/page can be very helpful in resolving issues. We receive notices if there are issues with the platform and your timely emails can let us know if there are problems with our notification system.

Feedback provided via teaching evaluations (e.g., seminar, lecture, Academy Scholar) and Course Evaluations are critical to the quality of the MD Program and its individual teachers.

• Individual Teacher Improvement and Portfolios: Like any lifelong learner, teachers are always eager to receive thoughtful and constructive feedback! Teachers who have received at least 3 evaluations can review a report of their amalgamated feedback, including comments, for their personal monitoring and improvement. When applying for promotion, teachers must include a report summarizing their teaching evaluations (if they have at least 3 evaluations).
• Monitoring Teaching Quality and Informing Program Improvement: Course Directors review feedback provided through evaluations and must respond to areas requiring attention in an annual course report. Directors use this feedback to make changes to the course, such as teaching topics and strategies during orientation and other learning activities. Directors also regularly review teachers flagged that receive low ratings in teaching evaluations. For additional information, see “What happens if I give a teacher a 1 or 2?”
• Accreditation Requirements: the accrediting body, CACMS (Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools), reviews high-level evaluation feedback, and requires a minimum response rate on evaluations for the MD Program to meet accreditation standards.

All evaluation submissions are confidential. We make every effort to ensure student identities are protected when providing evaluation feedback, and no personal student data is captured in evaluation reports.

The Office of Assessment and Evaluation is responsible for sharing all evaluation data with relevant stakeholders. Evaluation feedback is not shared unless there are a minimum of 3 completed evaluations to ensure student confidentiality. This way, teachers cannot link evaluation feedback to an individual student.

Teachers can access their aggregated feedback in MedSIS if they have at least 3 evaluations. They also receive their evaluation feedback via an end of year report. This report only shares data if a teacher receives at least 3 evaluations. If a teacher does not have enough evaluations from the current year to have access to their evaluation feedback, the OAE can merge up to three sequential academic years to provide the teacher with at least 3 evaluations.

1. When a teaching evaluation with a 1 or 2 is submitted, an alert is immediately available to the Course Director on MedSIS, and an email notification is sent once a week indicating the number of alerts. Details of the completed evaluation are only available to the Course Director in MedSIS.
2. In MedSIS, only feedback submitted in the evaluation form is provided to the Course Director. Student information is not included. Students’ confidentiality when completing evaluations is of the utmost importance for our program. We will never share this type of data with a teacher or a Course Director.
3. Upon reviewing the submitted evaluation, the Course Director could decide to a) monitor the teacher, b) address this with the teacher, or c) escalate if needed through the pathways that have been outlined for this process.
   1. Unless the comments received in the form suggest serious issues (e.g., abusive comments, unprofessional language) or extreme teaching deficiencies, Course Directors do not act on a single alert (beyond monitoring the teacher). It would be the multiplicity of alerts (n>3) that triggers the Course Director to address this with the faculty - this way, student identity is protected. If the comments in the forms are outrageous and require escalation, the Learner Experience Office (LEO) is involved, and we usually look for overall patterns in all the other evaluations received. If a particular comment needs to be presented to a teacher, LEO de-identifies those comments.
4. Teachers cannot review single evaluation forms, and can only see amalgamated feedback (e.g., all comments about Strengths combined together, all comments about Areas for Improvement combined together).

We would like to highlight the importance of including comments in teaching evaluations as they provide Course Directors and teachers with specific areas or behaviours to monitor or make improvements in. Offering constructive, detailed feedback in the evaluation helps elevate the quality of your educational experience. We would also like to remind you that the Office of Learner Affairs can be a great resource for learners. We encourage you to review this option if you experienced or witnessed mistreatment.

For any other questions you may have about evaluations or requirements, please contact the Office of Assessment and Evaluation, md.oae@utoronto.ca

For any issues with the MedSIS platform or technical problems in submitting forms, contact medsis.ume@utoronto.ca.