Twelve tips for blueprinting

Saurabh

2016

SQUMJ

abstract:Objectives: This study aimed to assess perceptions of the use of a blueprint in a pharmacology formative theory assessment. Methods: This study took place from October 2015 to February 2016 at a medical college in Gujurat, India. Faculty from the Department of Pharmacology used an internal syllabus to prepare an assessment blueprint. A total of 12 faculty members prepared learning objectives and categorised cognitive domain levels by consensus. Learning objectives were scored according to clinical importance and marks were distributed according to proportional weighting. A three-dimensional test specification table of syllabus content, assessment tools and cognitive domains was prepared. Based on this table, a theory paper was created and administered to 126 pharmacology students. Feedback was then collected from the faculty members and students using a 5-point Likert scale. Results: The majority of faculty members agreed that using a blueprint ensured proper weighting of marks for important topics (90.00%), aligned questions with learning objectives (80.00%), distributed questions according to clinical importance (100.00%) and minimised inter-examiner variations in selecting questions (90.00%). Few faculty members believed that use of the blueprint created too many easy questions (10.00%) or too many difficult questions (10.00%). Most students felt that the paper had a uniform distribution of questions from the syllabus (90.24%), that important topics were appropriately weighted (77.23%), was well organised (79.67%) and tested indepth subject knowledge (74.80%). Conclusion: These findings indicate that blueprinting should be an integral part of written assessments in pharmacology education. November 2016, Vol. 16, Iss. 4, pp. e475-481, Epub.

Section: Open-ended Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of the Use of Blueprinting in a Formative Theory Assessment in Pharmacology Education

Saurabh

2016

SQUMJ

Journal of Graduate Medical Education

“…In that case, relevant Milestones would be absent, and therefore, a gap would exist between important behaviors of practice and those of training. Blueprinting, a process of mapping the content of the realworld experience to an assessment tool, 25 is performed with careful attention to content representation and is a potential strategy to mitigate sampling errors.…”

Section: Content and Sampling Errorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pediatrics Milestone Project: Next Steps Toward Meaningful Outcomes Assessment

Hicks¹,

Englander²,

Schumacher³

et al. 2010

In the September 2010 issue of JGME, the Pediatric Milestones Working Group published “The Pediatrics Milestones: Conceptual Framework, Guiding Principles, and Approach to Development”, a document that describes the construction of the first iteration of the Pediatric Milestones. These Milestones were developed by the Working Group as a group of practical behavioral expectations for each of the 52 sub-competencies. In constructing these Milestones, the authors were cognizant of the need to ground the Milestones themselves in evidence, theories or other conceptual frameworks that would provide the basis for the ontogeny of development for each sub-competency. During this next phase of the Milestones development, the process will continue with consultation with content experts and consideration of assessment of Milestones. We have described possible measurement tools, explored threats to validity, establishment of benchmarks, and possible approaches to reporting of performance. The vision of the Pediatrics Milestone Project is to understand the development of a pediatrician from entry into medical school through the twilight of a physician’s career, and the work will require a collaborative effort of the undergraduate and graduate medical education communities, and the accrediting and certifying bodies.

“…Construct under-representation is a pertinent example of this, which occurs when a topic forming only a small part of the curriculum is examined prominently. This not only undermines validity but also can cause huge distress to students (Messick, 1989, Coderre, Woloschuk & Mclaughlin, 2009. In order to avoid this, there are many models we can use for an assessment blueprint including Miller's pyramid (1990), Bloom's taxonomy (1956) and the Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1980) spectrum of skills acquisition to name but a few.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Summative and Formative Assessment in Medicine: The Experience of an Anaesthesia Trainee

O'Shaughnessy

Joyce²

2015

IJHE

The practice of medicine is becoming increasingly onerous for doctors, with growing demands coming from both patients and peers. Therefore, we need to equip doctors of the future with the appropriate skills to negotiate a very complex environment. Assessment should be central to this goal with a renewed focus on a more rounded examination process. Rather than a compete reliance on summative assessment, an increased focus should be placed on formative assessment, which has been historically neglected in medicine. In addition, it is important for educators to realise that a mutimodal approach is required to establish competence in a valid fashion and that each assessment modality should be used for both summative and formative assessment where possible. This will not only serve to address the external pressures placed on the teacher to streamline students but it will facilitate student learning as they become active participants in assessment.Other areas of development in medical education going forward include peer assessment, which may be the answer to increasing cohort sizes. We also need to address the issue of maintaining adequate standards of assessment. Furthermore, we need to conduct further research to ensure that our assessment methods are an adequate predictor of future performance otherwise we as educational leaders will be failing both our students and the wider community.