Extending a Software-based Model for Professors’ Assessment Using Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach and Group Consensus

Introduction: Evaluation of professors by college students, in addition to describing their functional status, with expressing each strength and drawback could influence their educational performance. The drawbacks in the current assessment method clearly shows the necessity for applying fairer methods. This study aimed to present a new software-based index for assessing university professors and follows with the help of Multi-criteria Decision models. Methods: In this research a quantitative index was developed based on soft computing in which mathematical modeling process was pursued. AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process), Fuzzy OWA (Ordered Weighting Average), and TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) comprised the computing engines that have been embedded in a user-friendly software. The extended index was defined in the range of zero to 100 and its performance was examined through an applied study on 39 faculty members of Larestan University of Medical Science. Results: From the viewpoint of Decision-makers the criteria “The power of influence of the tutor in teaching the key points” and “engagement with students fitting with academic environment” received the most and the least importance, respectively. The least important criterion with the consensus degree of 95.41 and the criterion “Presence of the teacher in the given time in class” with the consensus degree of 83.34 showed the closest and the furthest agreement from the stakeholders. According to computed index, merely 2.8 percent of faculty members got values under the average boundary of 50. Conclusion: The proposed index provides an integrated and accurate evaluation of faculty members’ performance by exerting uncertainties which are so present in educational assessments. The methodology could be introduced to Iranian medical universities as a whole in order to improve the educational assessment systems and change them for better.