Optimizing Assessment Methods - A Series of Three Interactive Workshops

Assessment of competence in veterinary medicine requires understanding the purpose of assessment methods, the selection of appropriate assessment methods, and how to construct appropriate feedback that is provided to students, faculty, and administration. Recently, a change agent from The University of Padua in Italy reached out to the ICVA with an interest in expanding their methods for assessing veterinary student performance and determining what best practices they could put in place for their students, faculty, and administration. This led to an exciting partnership with the university.

Drs. Hecker, Million, and Vengrin set out to create a series of three interactive workshops that focused on the specific needs of participants, sharing assessment methods and ideas to build assessment tools appropriate for the courses they teach and the level of the learners.  

The first workshop, Principles of Assessment, took place virtually with 20 attendees. Objectives included:

• Discussing basic assessment practices
• Developing measurable objectives for their course
• Reviewing a variety of assessment methods
• Analyzing which assessment tools and methods are best for their use

Workshop 2 centered around outlining best practices for determining examinations and grading sheets/scoring rubrics. Multiple-choice questions were developed as an exercise so the team had tangible and useful take-home material that they can use in practice.

The third and final workshop addressed performance-based assessments including clinical and communication topics. In having these three half-day workshops spread out over time, faculty were able to implement changes between workshops, review the topics, and bring questions to ICVA staff at the next workshop. This sequential design provides a more integrated design to better support faculty as they embrace these topics.

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In the past few weeks, the ICVA has had several accredited North American schools sign up for customized assessment development workshops. Each series of workshops is customized to the individual institution. The process starts with a needs assessment on local context, determining goals and learning how assessment practices are valued. Workshops are then custom built to facilitate co-creation of knowledge that faculty and staff can implement in their respective education environments.

If you have any questions, or are interested in more information, please contact us.