A Survey on the Present Status of the Course Plans at Tehran University of Medical Sciences: A Prelude to Future Decisions

Background and Objectives: The development of a course plan is an essential activity before presenting each course, which enables effective education by mapping the road ahead. For this reason, the study of the status of course plans at universities is of particular importance, such that access to the documentations in this regard can lead to the discovery of the uncertainties of the status quo. Methods: This was a survey study performed in two stages. In the first stage, data about the current status of course plans was collected through a researcher-made questionnaire. Then, quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS software. Secondly, the content of the course plans was examined. The data was collected using a researcher-made checklist based on review of the related texts. Results: In total, 99 (92.52%) of the 107 academic departments completed the questionnaire. Of the 6926 responded units, 2251 units (32.5%) had a course plan. Of the 173 disciplines, 15 (8.7%) had provided a course plan on the faculty website. Of the 99 departments, 39 (39.4%) had a defined plan for course design and 34 (34.3%) departments had a monitoring committee. Qualitative analysis of course plans showed that 45.3% had an acceptable status, 6.2% were somewhat acceptable, 10.4% were incomplete and 38.1% were unacceptable. The general characteristics of the course (96.1%), the general description of the course (45.6%), the general objectives (87.0%), the specific goals (63.2%), and the introduction of resources (45.9%) had a “complete” and “fairly complete” status respectively and had the highest scores in course design. Also, students’ role and tasks components-role dimensions (66.4%), student’s assessment at the end of the course- summative evaluation (56.0%) and course timetable (51.8%) respectively, had the “incomplete” and “non-observance” status more than other components, and did not have a proper situation in course design. Conclusions: The results of this study lead to the recognition of the current status of course plan in Tehran University of Medical Sciences and can be considered in future decisions.