Awarding global grades in OSCEs: evaluation of a novel eLearning resource for OSCE examiners.

BACKGROUND A novel online resource has been developed to aid OSCE examiner training comprising a series of videos of OSCE performances that allow inter-examiner comparison of global grade decisions. AIMS To evaluate this training resource in terms of usefulness and ability to improve examiner confidence in awarding global grades in OSCEs. METHOD Data collected from the first 200 users included global grades awarded, willingness to change grades following peer comparison and confidence in awarding grades before and after training. RESULTS Most (86.5%) agreed that the resource was useful in developing global grade scoring ability in OSCEs, with a significant improvement in confidence in awarding grades after using the training package (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS This is a useful and effective online training package. As an adjunct to traditional training it offers a practical solution to the problem of availability of examiners.