During a Faculty Advancement, Mentoring and Engagement (FAME) presentation in January, OSU College of Medicine’s Assistant Dean for Evaluation and Assessment Cynthia Ledford, M.D., promoted competency-based curriculum to make education explicit (or transparent) and to reinforce student learning.
The metaphor she used drew on advancements of the auto industry, during which technology moved it steadily from Model T to self-driving cars. Dr. Ledford posed the question of whether we can move from our current didactic state of medical education to a system where students self-drive their education, proving their practical skills and abilities at check points along the way.
Current research indicates that students have a difficult time learning in one context and transferring what they learned to another context. In addition, given the high level of performance of most professional students, moving people from one passing score to a higher passing score has relatively little meaning from a student learning and assessment standpoint. Instead, focusing on proficiency and competency levels creates meaningful context for knowledge and the opportunity for students to transfer that knowledge into practical skills that can be applied in the real world.
She advocated seamlessly integrating learning and assessment. In computer gaming, for example, the ability of players increases through learning and assessing what went wrong, then repeating the process. Through repetitive practice, players learn to overcome the obstacles they are facing. Much like gamers, medical students should have the ability to practice their skills with self-directed, low stakes, formative assessments before they are expected to prove their abilities with summative assessments or summative Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCE’s). In addition, some in medical education have suggested that it may be in the best interests of the learner to move at a pace appropriate to mastering competency as opposed to rigid academic timeframes like semesters or quarters.
Other recommendations for assessment and evaluation included:
- Beware TMI: The level of content detail in the curriculum should be appropriate, and when doing assessment and evaluation, the type of data collected should be relevant and meaningful.
- Mind the Gap: Milenial students want value for their money, and while consumers don’t have a role in making the product, learners do. To support this role, medical educators can implement peer reviews, observation and teaching.
- Involve the clients and patients: Allow clients to offer feedback on the performance of students.
Finally, medical educators should consider what kind of “driver’s ed” is needed for a self-driving car. If a new curriculum model requires new ways of teaching and learning, what training do professional students need to make them capable drivers of their educational experience?