Assessment is recognized as a vital element of every educational program. When it comes to assessment of our learners, most educators quickly turn to the tried and true multiple choice question. When written well, multiple choice exams and quizzes do an excellent job of providing an accurate picture of what learners know and the areas in which they might be struggling.
But what about the qualities of our learners that aren’t easily captured by asking multiple choice questions? In health professions education, these might be certain clinical skills or professional skills we want to see our learners utilize in clinical encounters. Certain competencies and entrustable professional activities (EPAs) can be difficult to assess accurately through multiple choice questions; rather, they have to be seen and observed. This is when course and clinical faculty should consider the use of objective-structured assessment forms.
A well-designed assessment tool should provide an objective way to assess learners. Either the learner did, or did not, exhibit a certain behavior or perform a certain action. Of course, there will always be gray areas. This is why many choose to include Likert-scale items that include a “neutral” response category.
Elentra can help to make the process of building, assigning, and completing objective learner evaluations much easier. Many survey and assessment tools allow the development of objective questions and answer choices, but not all integrate with your learning management system. With Elentra, not only can you manage your courses, content, and curriculum mapping, but you can also use assessments and evaluations to assess your learners and send scores right back to the learner via the course gradebook. They can quickly view the evaluation and any comments left by their evaluator. Feedback doesn’t get more timely than this!
To close the feedback loop, consider assigning learners a self-evaluation – a capability that Elentra offers out of the box – so they can reflect on their performance after viewing the faculty feedback on their assessment.
Elentra works hard to make sure completing assessments is easy and efficient. Not only can Elentra send the evaluation link via email, but it can also send reminders to faculty automatically based on their preferences. Administrators can quickly determine which faculty members still have outstanding assessments and issue additional reminders as necessary. Faculty can even complete assessments right on their mobile device in the Elentra app or at their desktop.
So what kind of assessments can faculty complete in Elentra? With an easy to use distribution tool, Elentra makes it simple to assign any faculty member to evaluate any number of learners. Elentra can also use built-in logic from the central calendar interface to create assessments based on events and assigned faculty. If you need your small group facilitators to assess their assigned learners, then the assessment and evaluation tool in Elentra can be a true time-saver.
We know that faculty feedback on the curriculum is vital, so Elentra makes it easy to assign course and event evaluations to faculty members as well. Consider having course faculty complete evaluations similar to those completed by learners. The expertise of faculty regarding course content, organization, pedagogy, and assessments can be a huge asset as course directors prepare for the next iteration of their course. Assigning event evaluations to faculty enables them to contribute actionable insights that can immediately enhance course delivery.
Learners aren’t the only ones learning via self-reflection at our member institutions. Faculty are constantly experimenting with and implementing innovative new ways of teaching and learning. Elentra’s self-evaluations give faculty a structured tool to allow them to think critically about their teaching.
Faculty can view all the assessments that they’ve completed as well as evaluations of them by their learners. Being able to access this data, along with the strong reporting capabilities within Elentra can allow faculty and administrators to see trends in learning and make data-driven decisions. For example, you might want to know how the recent curriculum revision has affected learner performance on your objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs). With evaluations in Elentra, that answer is right at your fingertips.
As curriculum models continue to evolve in higher education and more emphasis is placed on competencies rather than discrete knowledge of course material, the ability to objectively assess your learners will become increasingly important. Elentra’s assessments and evaluations provide the tools needed to transition to assessing your learners’ ability to perform and not just their knowledge of textbook material.
Elentra’s integrated assessment tools are built to support objective, competency-based evaluation across clinical and classroom settings. From real-time learner feedback to structured faculty self-reflection, our platform helps you measure what matters most. Contact us today to explore how Elentra can strengthen your assessment strategy.