Benefits of focus group discussions beyond online surveys in course evaluations by medical students in the United States: A qualitative study

In this study, we analyze recommendations gathered from student evaluation team (SET) focus group meetings and analyzed whether these items were captured in open-ended comments within the online evaluations. Notes from 9 SET meetings for second-year medical student courses (academic year 2015-2016) taken by 2 second-year medical students (S.V.R. and A.C.) were analyzed. Feedback that included potential solutions was identified in a grounded theory-based approach and coded into the following 7 categories: issues related to specific teaching modalities used in courses, the overall course content, specific lectures (content and organization), sequencing of course events, administrative course components, exams, and study materials. Open-ended comments from online questionnaires were analyzed for the same 9 preclerkship courses for second-year medical students. In these online questionnaires, a 20-item Likert-style survey was followed by a request for comments related to the course. The survey was administered after the end of each course and 714 deidentified responses from second-year medical students were collected. The overall response rate of the online questionnaires was 66%. A total of 293 comments from the online questionnaires of the 9 preclerkship courses were analyzed. Online comments corresponding to SET meeting comments were identified.