BACKGROUND Competence in transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is unrelated to traditional measures of TTE competence, such as duration of training and number of examinations performed. This study aims to explore aspects of validity of an instrument for structured assessment of echocardiographic technical skills. METHODS The study included 45 physicians with three different clinical levels of ...

We examined the utility of frame-of-reference (FOR) training and behavioral observation training (BOT) for enhancing rating accuracy in a field study involving Canadian military personnel. Participants were randomly assigned to either (a) FOR training, (b) FOR training + BOT, or (c) control training. Participants were assessed on a variety of training program evaluation criteria, including rati...

BACKGROUND Foot pain drawings (manikins) are commonly used to describe foot pain location in self-report health surveys. Respondents shade the manikin where they experience pain. The manikin is then scored via a transparent overlay that divides the drawings into areas. In large population based studies they are often scored by multiple raters. A difference in how different raters score manikins...

Developments in crew resource management (CRM) have progressed from the introduction of training programs to the evaluation of CRM skills, particularly for multicrew cockpits. European regulators responsible for flight operations and flight crew licensing (Joint Aviation Authorities, 1996, 1997) are introducing requirements for the training and assessment of pilots’ nontechnical skills. This ar...

[Purpose] To examine agreement rates between faculty members and clinical supervisors as OSCE examiners. [Subjects] The study subjects were involved physical and occupational therapists working in clinical environments for 1 to 5 years after graduating from training schools as OSCE examinees, and a physical or occupational therapy faculty member and a clinical supervisor as examiners. Another c...

This study examined the construct validity of the e-rater automated essay scoring engine as an alternative to human scoring in the context of TOEFL essay writing. Analyses were based on a sample of students who repeated the TOEFL within a short time period. Two e-rater scores were investigated in this study, the first based on optimally predicting the human essay score and the second based on e...