Revitalizing Educational Development Offices (EDOs) in medical universities: a three-year action research for the post-stagnation era

Educational Development Offices (EDOs) are decentralized units responsible for supporting educational development across faculties and teaching hospitals. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, several EDOs at Kerman University of Medical Sciences showed reduced activity, limited planning, and irregular reporting. This study aimed to describe and evaluate a participatory organizational revitalization process for EDOs using Action Research informed by Kotter’s 8-Step Change Management Model. This participatory Action Research study was conducted from June 2022 to June 2025 and comprised four iterative cycles of planning, action, observation, reflection, and modification. Kotter’s 8-Step Change Management Model provided the organizational change framework. The intervention combined organizational diagnosis, stakeholder engagement, capacity building, iterative adaptation, and integration of EDO functions into routine governance. Quantitative data from 27 participants who completed paired pre- and post-training assessments were summarized using means and standard deviations and analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Qualitative data were analyzed using conventional content analysis. At baseline, only 6 of 13 EDOs were partially active, and none had formalized annual plans or documented staff training. Following the capacity-building activities, paired pre–post comparisons showed statistically significant increases in participants’ knowledge scores across all five assessed domains (all p < 0.05). During the intervention, faculty development workshops increased from 4 in 2021 to 36 in 2024, with 24 additional workshops recorded during January–June 2025. Student participation in faculty teaching evaluations increased from 28% to 78% over the same reporting period, and 38 course syllabi were revised between 2023 and June 2025. By the end of the intervention, all 13 EDOs had documented operational plans, regular reporting mechanisms, and formally defined roles within educational governance structures. Qualitative findings identified role clarification, perceived organizational support, local adaptation of implementation processes, and variation in implementation across faculties and teaching hospitals. The three-year revitalization process was associated with increased EDO activity, more regular organizational processes, and greater integration of EDO functions into educational governance. Combining participatory action research with Kotter’s change management framework may provide a useful approach for structuring organization-wide change in decentralized medical education settings. However, the study did not directly assess educational quality, student learning, or long-term sustainability; these outcomes require longer-term and multi-institutional evaluation.