How to administer an elective

It is recommended to delegate an additional co-director or a coordinator for the elective to serve as a partner or backup in these responsibilities:

• Maintain rotation availability based on current enrollment. This includes any visiting students you may have through VSLO. Course rosters are accessible in MedHub.

  • Please refer to the instructions for how to pull rosters in MedHub on this MedHub How-To Guide.   

  • Please note: Students should not be referred to the registrar to check for open spots. It is the responsibility of the course director (or their departmental liaison) to access and maintain that information in order to ensure sufficient learning opportunities for students in clinical sites.

• Grant student permission to add your elective (after the open request period or always if your course is “by permission only”).

  • We do ask students to provide 30 days’ notice for all drop/add requests.

  • Coordinator/faculty permission to add a course is granted via email. Students will attach email permissions to their request in the E*Value system.

• Oversee the elective course experience, including the assignment of additional teaching faculty

• Collect preceptor evaluations and enter final grades.

  • Final grade evaluations are due within 30 days of the end of a rotation. All electives are graded Satisfactory (S)/Fail (F).

  • Please note: Even if you do not work directly with a student, it is your responsibility to collect the feedback from the faculty that worked with the student and enter the grade information into MedHub (or MSAS).

  • To facilitate collecting evaluation feedback from other faculty, if multiple faculty members will be working with a student, there is an option to set up the evaluations in MedHub such that they are sent directly to the faculty that worked with a student.

  • Request this functionality for your course through the Tiered Evaluation Request Form.

  • Please note that even if you have this functionality set up for your course, it is still your responsibility to enter the final grade for a student. Please see the instructions on MedNet for how to submit evaluations in this MedHub How-To Guide.

• Provide students with “first day” information prior to the start of a rotation (i.e. where to go, what time to arrive, workplace expectations, etc.)

  • These can be automated in MedHub to go out ahead of every rotation using the ‘Course Objectives’ functionality. Please see the instructions for how to set this up on the MedHub How-To Guide.

  • Students also have access to a central repository of first day instructions for all electives if communication is delayed prior to their first day. Please submit your first day instructions to iusmecat@iu.edu for inclusion in the repository if you have not already done so.   

  • Instructions in the repository are intended to help students who like to “plan ahead” and to reduce administrative workload; the repository is not a substitute for getting in touch with students prior to the first day of the rotation. Please provide your students first day instructions ahead of time via email, canvas, or MedHub, even if you have included first day instructions in the repository.

• Provide students site credentialing/onboarding information prior to the start of a rotation. The Course Director (or their designee) must ensure students have completed their credentialing/onboarding requirements before the start of a rotation. 

  • Additional information for VA electives: If your elective is offered at the VA, the VA Education Department requires students to begin onboarding a minimum of 30 days prior to the start of a rotation, even if they have previously rotated at the VA. Share the VA onboarding steps with your students.   

  • You must communicate with your students ahead of time if they will be rotating at the VA and need to begin the credentialing/re-credentialing process. Credentials may have expired, or this may be a student’s first rotation in Indianapolis.

• Maintain up-to-date elective course catalog information and submit updates to the elective course catalog information during the fall annual elective catalog update, and as needed to iusmecat@iu.edu.

  • Examples of updates may include changes to the course director, a new administrative contact, changes to the availability, etc.

• Use Canvas to conduct your course and house educational materials. All electives will have a corresponding Canvas site. If you have questions about Canvas or need help setting up your course site, please reach out to the education technology team.

Elective course directors are responsible for ensuring that final grades are entered for students in MedHub. Final grade evaluations are due within 30 days of the end of a rotation.

Instructions for completing evaluations in MedHub are available on this MedHub How-To Guide. Additional information about electives grading can be found in the Grade Policy for Courses, Clerkships, and Electives in Phases 2 and 3.

All students must have an evaluation filled out by the course director, even if the course director did not work directly with the student. In instances where the student worked with other faculty members, the course director should seek feedback from the other faculty members in order to complete the student evaluation. However, it is still the role of the course director to fill out the final evaluation form.

Course directors will receive an email notification from MedHub when final evaluations are ready to be completed. You must log into MedHub to complete the evaluation. If you have trouble accessing evaluations in MedHub, please contact the MedHub Support Team at medhub@iu.edu.

Elective course directors are responsible for ensuring that final grades are entered for students in MedHub. All students must have an evaluation filled out by the course director, even if the course director did not work directly with the student. In instances where the student worked with other faculty members, the course director should seek feedback from the other faculty members in order to complete the student evaluation. However, it is still the role of the course director to fill out the final evaluation form.

To facilitate collecting evaluation feedback from other faculty if multiple faculty members will be working with a student, there is an option to set up the evaluations in MedHub such that they are sent directly to the faculty that worked with a student. If you would like to request this functionality for your course, please fill out the Tiered Evaluation Request Form.

Please note that even if you have this functionality set up for your course, it is still your responsibility to enter the final grade for a student. Instructions for completing evaluations in MedHub are available on this MedHub How-To Guide.

Yes! You can set up ‘tiered’ evaluations in MedHub to more easily collect feedback from other faculty. To add this functionality to your course, please fill out the Tiered Evaluation Request Form.

At the end of a rotation, students are sent an evaluation form through MedHub in which they can evaluate their experience during the course. Course directors can access this data in MedHub in order to support your course development. Instructions for accessing the student evaluation of the course data in MedHub are on the MedHub How-To Guide. The school recommends reviewing the student evaluation data for your course at least once per academic year. If you need additional assistance accessing these reports please contact the MedHub Support Team at medhub@iu.edu.

Yes, this is available upon request. Please contact the Electives Team (iusmecat@iu.edu) and the MedHub Team (medhub@iu.edu) if you are interested in requesting this functionality for your course.

Course directors can decide the various modes of assessment to use as part of their course. Examples may include observation, oral exam, written exam, logbook entries, case presentation, oral presentation, written essay, discussion with faculty, etc. However, every course is required to use the standard MedHub evaluation form based on the course type. The standard MedHub evaluation form cannot be modified at the individual course level.

Instructions for logging into MedHub and accessing Elective Rosters can be found using the MedHub How-To Guide. It is the responsibility of the course director (or their designee) to access rosters and maintain rotation availability information based on current enrollment. Please do not refer students to the registrar to check for course availability. If you are having difficulty pulling rosters, please contact the MedHub Support Team (medhub@iu.edu). To request roster access for a departmental liaison, please email the MedHub team (medhub@iu.edu) and the Electives Team (iusmecat@iu.edu).

Please note that the initial scheduling of electives occurs in the E*Value system. Until the conclusion of the initial scheduling period, rosters will only be available in E*Value, not MedHub. Learn how to access elective course rosters in E*Value. If you need to refer to your rosters during the initial scheduling period (mid-February through mid-March) in order to track enrollment, please use the E*Value system. Once the initial electives scheduling period concludes and rosters have been loaded into MedHub (you will be notified when this occurs), from that time on please only use MedHub.

Phase 3 (MS4) Scheduling Process

Phase 3 students typically begin scheduling their elective courses during February prior to their fourth year. The first round of elective scheduling is open enrollment in which students can add any elective, except the courses that have indicated explicitly that prior permission is required. Open enrollment typically lasts four weeks. After that time, all students need permission from the course director (or their designee) before they can add any course to their schedule for the remainder of the academic year. Course directors (or their designee) will provide email permissions, which students will attach to their course request in the E*Value system. If you require students to request permission to enroll in your course, please contact the Electives Team (iusmecat@iu.edu) to make sure the appropriate wording has been included in the catalog.

Phase 2 (MS3) Scheduling Process

If you allow Phase 2 students to enroll, you (or your designee) must provide permission before students can add the course to their schedule. Students should contact the primary contact for your course to schedule their enrollment. Phase 2 students are not scheduled into electives until the conclusion of Phase 2 clerkship scheduling and the preferential scheduling of Phase 3 students into their electives.

Holidays and Time Away

Students are not to be scheduled for activities on school-designated holidays. View the rotation schedules for Phase 2 and Phase 3.

Students may request time off by following the Time Away Policy.

You can search for your elective(s) in the elective course catalog using a variety of search criteria including the course number, the campus location, department, etc. If updates are needed to the elective course catalog information, please submit those at any time to the Electives Team (iusmecat@iu.edu). You will also be contacted by the Office of Medical Student Education a minimum of annually to review and update the catalog information for your elective(s) as part of the annual elective catalog update process for the subsequent academic year’s electives catalog.

Please submit course updates to the Electives Team (iusmecat@iu.edu). We take course updates on an ongoing basis as needed throughout the year. It is the responsibility of the Course Director to ensure their course information is accurate and up-to-date.

Please email the Electives Team (iusmecat@iu.edu) so the course can be removed from the catalog and inactivated in our course systems.

Faculty and students should review the Time Away Policy regarding time off during electives. Students will submit an online time away request using the Time Away Request Form. Student submission of an absence request through the online form will come to you and/or the primary contact for your course from MSE via the mdedtech@iu.edu email address. Details of the request will be included in the email along with a button to approve or deny the request.

For elective courses, students should plan time away with the course director in advance of the elective (when possible) and discuss the potential for flexibility for unexpected interviews. All requests for time away, including for interviews, should be submitted via the time away form. Requests will then come to the course director to approve or deny.

Accommodation for time away for interviews is at the course director’s discretion and is based on the circumstances and availability of accommodations, with expectations to make up any time missed.

Work with the Ruth Lilly Medical Library to secure ebooks or print books for your elective. The library purchases ebooks whenever possible so that all students can access the materials no matter where they live. The library will occasionally purchase print books and keep them in a reserve collection at the Ruth Lilly Medical Library in Indianapolis.