St George's Advanced Assessment Course

Course Convenor: Dr Katharine Boursicot, Reader in Medical Education,
Head of Assessment, Centre for Medical and Healthcare Education, PHSE,
SGUL

12th-14th November 2012

St George's, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London, SW17 0RE

This course is for people involved in assessment, at both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education levels, who wish to broaden their perspective and deepen their understanding of specific areas of assessment.

The workshops will provide hands-on experience of psychometrics and methodologies relating to some of the newer and more challenging assessment and standard setting areas.

This course will provide advanced coverage of assessment principles and methodologies in medical education.

Participants will have the opportunity to:

• Gain deeper understanding of the principles of assessment and learn to evaluate evidence from the literature
• Acquire knowledge of classical test theory, generalisability theory and item response theory
• Gain hands-on experience of standard setting methods
• Explore in depth the use of a range of assessment tools
  • Assessment of Professionalism
  • OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations)
  • Workplace-Based Assessment
  • Writing Test Items 
• Identify issues in the assessment of challenging areas in medical education

Methods

The course will include interactive lectures and workshops. Participants will have the opportunity to attend 5 workshops, during which they will be able to explore areas of their particular interest. Reading lists and further references will be provided.

WORKSHOPS: Participants may attend 5 workshops of their choice

Psychometrics

1.  Psychometrics in Assessment
     Professor Cees van der Vleuten ,
     Director of the School of Health Profession Education,
     University of Maastricht, Netherlands

2.  Use of Generalizability for Design and Analysis of the OSCE
      and Other Performance-based Testing Methods
      Dr. David Swanson, Vice President, Assessment Programmes,
      National Board of Medical Examiners, Philadelphia, USA

3.  Item Response Theory
     Professor Steven Downing, PhD, Associate Professor Emeritus,
     University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Medical Education,
     Chicago, IL USA

Standard Setting

4.  OSCE standard setting - the borderline methods
      Dr John Patterson, Emeritus Senior Lecturer and formerly
      Head of Assessment at Barts and the London,
      University of London

5.  Angoff and Ebel Methods
      Professor Peter McCrorie, Head of the Centre for Medical and
      Healthcare Education, SGUL

Assessment Tools

6.  OSCE Workshop and Clinic
      Dr Kathy Boursicot, Head of Assessment, SGUL

7.  Workplace-Based Assessment
      Dr Julian Archer, NIHR Career Development Fellow, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Clinical Education,
      Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Plymouth

8.  OSCE Examiner Training
      Angela Hall, Emeritus Reader in Clinical Communication,
      St. George’s, University of London

9.  Writing test items on “difficult” topics
      Kathy Holtzman, Assistant Vice President, Assessment Programmes,
      National Board of Medical Examiners, Philadelphia, USA

10. Assessment of Professionalism
      Professor Trudie Roberts, Director of Leeds Institute of
      Medical Institute of Medical Education (LIME) and Dr Richard Fuller, Sub Dean, University of Leeds

11. Programmatic Assessment: Theory and Practice
      Dr Elaine Dannefer, Director, Medical Education Research and Assessment, Cleveland

Course participants in previous years of the course have asked for a social event of some kind. We are happy to organise a dinner locally in Tooting but are asking for a contribution as in the past many people did not turn up, resulting in wastage of food and money. Please mark on booking form if you will be attending.