The Virtual Company educational scenario engages students in a professional setting for working and learning. Students are enabled to develop competencies that are derived from professional practice. This allows us to use assessment strategies that are different from the practice in traditional educational settings. In the Virtual Company educational scenario the competence assessment procedure...

BACKGROUND Teaching quality improvement (QI) principles during residency is an important component of promoting patient safety and improving quality of care. The literature on QI curricula for internal medicine residents is limited. We sought to evaluate the impact of a competency based curriculum on QI among internal medicine residents. METHODS This was a prospective, cohort study over four ...

BACKGROUND The Chief Medical Officer has presented a report proposing a change in general practitioners' education towards a 'Practice Professional Development Plan', which, in principle, is based around formal needs assessment, practice-based learning in areas identified by those involved, and with the potential for multi-professional learning. This aims to replace the present system of a fina...

In the past five years, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has completed several different aativities aimed at reducing the risk of chemical spills and exposures in schools, including chemical collections, training workshops, and a mercury needs assessment. IDP found that many schools store and use hazardous chemicals in ways that increase the risk of accidents and exposures. As a ...

Evidence on the uncertainty attached to school and individual scores is required to avoid overinterpretation of scores. Generalizability analysis provides a standard error (SE) that is a suitable indicator of uncertainty; a value can be obtained for a design already executed or for a design being considered for possible use. Assessments depart from traditional measurements in ways that require ...

Assessment-based educational games can produce useful information to guide student instruction. This paper describes an approach for integrating components of video games with those of adaptive technologies and assessment into the design of educational games. Three examples in the areas of English language learning and mathematics are also presented.

Methods We searched electronic databases for the past 15 years for relevant articles using any type of study design. Articles describing aspects of curricula focusing on musculoskeletal exam education were eligible for inclusion. Abstracts were reviewed, and full text articles were obtained for studies meeting inclusion criteria. Reference lists were examined and additional relevant articles we...

BACKGROUND The purpose of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is to make the best possible summary of the evidence regarding specific health interventions in order to influence health care and policy decisions. The need for decision makers to find relevant HTA data when it is needed is a barrier to its usefulness. These barriers are highest in rural areas and amongst isolated practitioners. ME...