Assessment
Overview
Assessment has been designed on the basis of the Faculty's goals which emphasise support for learning to ensure that students achieve an acceptable level of competence in all four themes (see theme goals of Medical Program (USydMP)).
Online assessment is available day or night, to measure progress and obtain feedback (Problem-based Learning Cases).
Students are encouraged to evaluate their own progress and learning needs in preparation for a life-time of learning in professional practice. The emphasis is thus on ongoing formative assessment (see below) that provides appropriate, sensitive and timely feedback to individuals and groups; the results of all formative assessments remain the property of each student and do not determine progression.
Opportunities are built in throughout the curriculum for you to review their progress. Voluntary online self-assessment tasks across all Themes are included each week. Formative assessments (see below) are used to review the content and process skills to date, using formats and types of questions that are ultimately used summatively (see below). Participation in the assessments is compulsory.
The principles of assessment in the USydMP are:
- Assessments should test the achievement of faculty goals and objectives
- The assessment program will be structured on the curriculum themes
- Summative assessments will be under central control
- Departments must contribute strongly to multi-disciplinary theme assessments
- Students will require prior practice with summative assessment instruments
- Some assessments will be conducted on a group basis
- Assessments should foster and support: problem-solving skills, clinical skills, team-work and self directed learning
- Formative assessments will be required and their use should be maximised to facilitate feedback
- Summative assessments will be required to ensure competence but their use should be minimised
- Assessment instruments must be valid reliable and practicable
- Criterion-referenced grading is the scoring system of choice
- Assessments should suit the subject matter and method of learning
Formative and summative assessment
Formative assessment allows students to test their knowledge against the required standard so that they can find out what they do know, and more importantly what they do not know. It is a learning tool. Formative assessment provides a guide to students about the content, skills and level of achievement that we will expect them to have attained prior to entry to the next stage of the program. It also provides them with practice in the assessment instruments which will be used to test them summatively. Therefore formative assessment should match summative assessment as much as possible.
Summative assessment is required at defined points of the program in order to determine whether or not a student has achieved the required level of mastery for progression to the next stage of the program or for graduation.
Online assessment
Online assessment is one of the many formative assessment instruments that is utilised in the USydMP. It is voluntary. Students decide when and how to use it to complement their own learning program.
Strengths of online assessment:
- access questions at any time
- provide a guide to content coverage for each problem
- receive immediate feedback on performance
- provide/receive feedback via the Assessment, Online feedback forum