Download - Virtual Patients as a Tool for Assessment
15th May 2008
Virtual Patients as a Tool for Assessment
Presented to
Medbiquitous Conference 2008
Presented by
Emily Conradi, e-Projects Manager
Jonathan Round, Senior Lecturer and Consultant Paediatrician
Why use VPs for assessment?
o Clinical reasoning skills; o Patient management;o Applicability of knowledge;o Consistent feedback;o Online.
oValidityoFeasibilityoReliability
The perfect method of assessment?
Models of VPs for assessment
o Branching VPs: Scenario Adapts to reflect choices
o Three models of AVPs:–Model 1: Ranking
Models of VPs for assessment
o Branching VPs: Scenario Adapts to reflect choices
o Three models of AVPs:–Model 1: Ranking–Model 2: Ranking with increasing difficulty
Models of VPs for assessment
o Branching VPs: Scenario Adapts to reflect choices
o Three models of AVPs:–Model 1: Ranking–Model 2: Ranking with increasing difficulty–Model 3: Scenario adapts
Trialling VPs for Assessment
o Third year Graduate Medicine – Six cohorts of 12 (n=73)
o Formative assessment o Four Paediatric cases o Five decision points per case
– Between 4 and 8 choiceso Blind scoring
Feedback
QuestionsStrongly disagree
Disagree Neutral AgreeStrongly
agree
This was a fair method of assessment 0% 7% 25% 40% 38%
I like this method of assessment 3% 14% 12% 45% 26%
I found this method of assessment frustrating
21% 33% 22% 21% 4%
I was disadvantaged by this method of assessment
32% 33% 22% 9% 4%
The cases were realistic 3% 4% 12% 51% 30%
I will score the same as I would with MCQs and short answer questions
1% 22% 57% 16% 4%
Feedback
o 97% felt they had time to complete the assessment
o 96% felt the VP was user-friendly
o 86% reported no problems using the technology– Frustration with lack of ‘back’ button
General Comments
o much more interesting to have a scenario than standard MCQs
o absolutely lovely, great fun and much more interactive then dry paper questions
o great way to be assessed and to self-assess
o it's great practise and good way to test learning
o don't like that you can't go back and look at previous information
o requires both general and specific knowledge
o i hope more exams will be carried out like this in the future
o the more practical experience I have, the better I will perform!
AVP Performance against exam scores
Case Comparison1st and 2nd half compared
R2 = 0.0674
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
0 5 10 15 20
Conclusions
oValidityoFeasibilityoReliability
Future Work
o More comprehensive trial; more iterations;o More, shorter VP cases;o Different VP cases;o Different assessment models.