Resources

Evaluating Effectiveness
Alliance for CME. Evaluating Educational Outcomes: An Electronic Workbook
for Continuing Medical Education Providers. Online [for purchase]:
http://www.acme-assn.org/, September 22, 2004.

Available for purchase, this 64 page workbook includes information on measuring satisfaction, learning, competence and patient health status.
 

Multiple Choice Question Writing
National Board of Medical Examiners. Constructing Written Test Questions
For the Basic and Clinical Sciences. Online [Available]:
http://www.nbme.org/about/itemwriting.asp, September 22, 2004.

A guide used by writers preparing USMLE, NBME, and specialty board
examinations. Downloadable and free. Contains information on multiple choice testing formats, typical item flaws and extended matching.

University of Alabama School of Medicine Office of Curriculum Development
and Management. Teaching Tips: Test Item Writing. Online [Available]:
http://www.uab.edu/uasomume/cdm/test.htm, September 22, 2004.

A quick overview of test item types and their advantages and disadvantages.  Also includes a number of tips and templates.

University of Cape Town.  Application of Bloom’s Taxonomy to the Design of Multiple Choice Questions.  http://web.uct.ac.za/projects/cbe/mcqman/mcqappc.html#C2, accessed May 15, 2005.

Examples of multiple-choice questions written at all levels of cognition, including analysis and evaluation.

McKenna C and Bull J (1999).  Designing Effective Objective Test Questions: An Introductory Workshop.  Computer Assisted Assessment Center Loughborough University. http://caacentre.lboro.ac.uk/dldocs/otghdout.pdf, accessed May 15, 2005.

Examples of weak and improved multiple-choice questions.  Basic information on multiple true/false, assertion/reason, matching questions and true/false questions.
 

Classroom Assessment Techniques
University of Hawaii Honolulu Community College.  Faculty Development Teaching Tips Index: Classroom Assessment Techniques and Examples.  http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/assess-1.htm, accessed Mary 15, 2005.

A concise review of the characteristics, assumptions and starting points for the use of Classroom Assessment Techniques.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.  Classroom Assessment Techniques.  Online [Available]: http://www.siue.edu/~deder/assess/catmain.html, accessed May 15, 2005.

Information on many classroom assessment techniques including the muddiest point, minute papers and matrixes.
 

General Learning Assessment
ABC of learning and teaching in medicine Series British Medical Journal. Online [Available]: http://www.bmj.com/, April 2, 2003.

Articles on evaluation, written assessment and skill assessment are
available, in addition to other education related topics, such as clinical teaching. Each article is brief, providing an overview of relevant theories and examples of application.

Angelo TA, Cross KP.  Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers (2nd Ed.).  San Francisco, CA:  Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1993. 

Dozens of learning assessment techniques for use in live instructional environments.  Each technique is categorized by 1) faculty prep time, 2) student response time and 3) faculty analysis time.

General Evaluation-Related Resources
University of Toronto Continuing Medical Education. Research & Development Resource Base (RDRB). Online [Available]: http://www.cme.utoronto.ca/rdrb/, September 22, 2004.

Search the continuing medical education related literature. In addition, this site posts an “article of the month” and keeps an archive of past articles. Interesting reading!

The Alliance for Continuing Medical Education, The Society for Academic
Continuing Medical Education & The Council on CME, Association for Hospital
Medical Education. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions. Online [Available]: http://www.jcehp.com/, September 22, 2004

Abstracts of issues 1981-present. Full text must be obtained at a library or via membership.

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