Innovations in Health Professions Written Assessments

This project addressed the following problem: that despite their wide use in medical and health professions education, evidence shows that a large proportion of multiple-choice written exam items is technically flawed and questions tend to assess lower-level, siloed thinking. The resultant lack of authenticity negatively impacts the validity of assessments and has been shown to disadvantage some students.

Project collaborators developed and implemented an innovative student-engaged written exam review and quality improvement model. Graduate students were employed to revise and generate written exam items, develop learning resources and implement evidence-based faculty development training and resources for process and outcomes quality improvement in written objective assessments.

Project outcomes represent health profession program, faculty and student participant impacts, with lessons learned by the project faculty lead offering additional insight. Sustainable deliverables include evidence-based written objective exam best practices; written exam data export, cleaning and analysis procedures; training materials and resources; and communication templates.

This student-engaged model offers a scalable strategy for health professions programs to enhance assessment practices. By utilizing the resources and best-practice guidelines established in this project, educators from any health professions program can implement interventions ranging from single-course refinements to full-scale curricular assessment modifications.