Lambert Schuwirth
Dujeepa Samarasekera^1, Jillian Yeo¹ and Lee Shuh Shiing
1 Centre for Medical Education (CenMED), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore 

Assessments in medical and health professions education aims to develop lifelong learners who will continue to educate themselves as part of their professional development. However, at present, significant number of health professional training programmes focus on high stakes final examinations as a determinant for being competent for professional practice. Due to the complexity of the present learning environments, educators are required to make informed decisions by interpreting a trainee’s performance based on the context of the learning and practice environment (Govaerts & van der Vleuten, 2013). There is a need to develop a program of assessments which would drive learning and provide educators with a holistic picture of the trainee’s performance in order to make a value judgement on the trainee’s progression to the next phase of learning (Schuwirth & van der Vleuten, 2012). For this to materialise, one needs to improve the quality of assessment and its analysis. The use of assessment analytics will provide supporting evidence to determine the candidate’s strengths and gaps for educators to focus on. This would instill confidence in educators and other stakeholders (such as patients and healthcare providers) that the trainees whom are entering the workforce are effective, empathetic and safe. 

This course will be facilitated faculty members who will share their knowledge and experiences through engaging mini-presentations and case discussions. The course is specially designed for medical and health professions educators, leaders and administrative staff who are involved in developing of student or resident assessment. 

Level of workshop: Intermediate 

Take-home messages / workshop outcomes / implications for further research or practice 

A program of assessments supported by assessment psychometrics which would provide educators with a holistic picture of the trainee’s performance in order to make a value judgement on progressing the trainee. 

References (maximum three) 

Govaerts, M., & van der Vleuten, C. P. (2013). Validity in work-based assessment: expanding our horizons. Medical education, 47(12), 1164–1174. Doi:10.1111/medu.12289 

Schuwirth, L. W., & van der Vleuten, C. P. (2012). Programmatic assessment and Kane's validity perspective. Medical education, 46(1), 38–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365- 2923.2011.04098.x