First Step: Determine the evaluation basic purpose and define the assessment objectives
This is an important step which aims to precise:
- Who you want to evaluate
- The evaluation basic purpose (what, when and why you want to evaluate)
By responding to these questions, you will ascertain the assessment desing.
Example 1 :
Project design: Evaluation of the clinical reasoning skills improvement of medical students geriatrics clerkship.
Who is being evaluated?
- In which program and level of the formation are those persons enrolled in?
- Medical students clerkship
What do you want to evaluate?
- Which domain/sphere/field or which discipline?
- Geriatrics
- Which course or internship?
- Geriatrics clerkship
- Which field(s) of knowledge, abilities (e.g. counseling) or other (e.g. attitude)?
- diagnosis, investigation and treatment
When do you want to evaluate (at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of clerkship)?
For instance…
- Initial formation (clerkship, residency 1 or 2) :
At the beginning or at the end of an internship formation - Continuous formation:
Purpose of the evaluation : To be aware of the educational attainments (pre and post tests) or as a formation tool (SCT formation).
Why do you want to evaluate?
- To show a progression:
- At the internship
- At the residency
- To contribute to a competence certification:
- At the end of clerkship
- At the end of the specialty
- To detect knowledge weakness(es) or blank(s) (e.g. in continuous formation)
In our example:
We wanted to evaluate medical students before and after their geriatrics internship in order to guide them in their learning towards medical formation.