Measuring the success of an educational program through box-and-arrow diagram: A case study of the Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Interdisciplinary Instructional Institute

摘要

Box and arrow diagrams are simple models that help students synthesize information pertaining to complex environmental systems and allow instructors to identify and address the misconceptions. These diagrams can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of training, through collection of diagrams before and after instruction. Box-and-arrow diagrams were used to measure the success of the Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Interdisciplinary Instructional Institute (QMRA III) at Michigan State University. QMRA III is a one-and-a-half-week training program designed for advanced graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and early career professionals to assimilate scientific data and implement computer programs towards building a risk assessment for assuring safety and health goals. Each cohort of QMRA III consists of engineering, biological and social scientists with the goal of cross training. As part of the evaluation plan of the program, students were asked to construct a box-and-arrow diagram conveying a risk management plan involving the full range of biologic, economic, social, political, and cultural factors that impact risk during a pathogen exposure. Additionally, experts, professors and career professionals who were also the instructors in QMRA III, were asked to construct similar diagrams. This paper presents the results of the evaluation of the diagrams, and demonstrates how a simple tool, such as box-and-arrow diagram can be used to evaluate an interdisciplinary educational program with emphasis on the expansion of the participant's knowledge beyond their own discipline. Using this method, effectiveness of the program was assessed by comparing the participants' understanding before and after the workshop, and also by comparing participants' diagrams to those conveyed by the experts.