This paper aims to increase understanding and appreciation of formative assessment and its role in improving student outcomes and the instructional process, while educating faculty on formative techniques readily adaptable to various educational settings. Included are a definition of formative assessment and the distinction between formative and summative assessment. Various formative assessmen...

We present a web-based tool for a type of peer assessment we dubbed organic. In organic peer assessment there are no upper or lower limits on the number of assignments each peer has to review, avoiding the common issue of prematurely coercing students into activities they might fear and dislike. Instead, peer assessment occurs as a side effect of activities students find intrinsically motivatin...

OBJECTIVE This study aims to: 1) Evaluate whether a near-peer program improves perceived OSCE performance; 2) Identify factors motivating students to teach; 3) Evaluate role of near-peer teaching in medical education. METHODS A near-peer OSCE teaching program was implemented at Monash University's Peninsula Clinical School over the 2013 academic year. Forty 3rd-year and thirty final-year medi...

A possible measure of clinical competency for undergraduates may be students' continuous clinical assessment marks. This study compared each student's continuous clinical assessment (CCA) mark with their summative clinical assessments (SCA) in Paedodontics, Crown and Bridgework, Endodontics and Basic Restorative Dentistry. This was done in order to evaluate the predictive potential of the forme...

The teach-learn-assess cycle in education is broken in a typical massive open online course (MOOC). Without formative assessment and feedback, MOOCs amount to information dump or broadcasting shows, not educational experiences. A number of remedies have been attempted to bring formative assessment back into MOOCs, each with its own limits and problems. The most widely applicable approach for al...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate whether excursions of blood pressure from the optimal mean arterial pressure during and after cardiac surgery are associated with postoperative delirium identified using a structured examination. DESIGN Prospective, observational study. SETTING University hospital. PARTICIPANTS The study included 110 patients undergoing cardiac surgery. IN...