Assessment

Definition

Term used to define the measurement of changes in knowledge, competence, performance, or healthcare outcomes that are associated with the planned educational intervention.

Methods

Assessments can be paper-based or electronic (via online software or applications). If directly assessing through questions, question structure is often multiple choice, "select all" style, or agreement scales (eg, Likert-like), but a variety of question formats may be used. Assessments are typically administered before and after an activity, but may be interleaved or interwoven throughout a learning experience.

In certain environments assessments may also include the collection of performance data, systems data, or data related to patient- or community-level outcomes.

Evidence

Effectiveness of Continuing Medical Education – AHRQ Report 149

National Board of Medical Examiners Constructing Written Test Questions for the Basic and Clinical Sciences, 2018.

Example

Before and after starting an online enduring activity, HCPs had to answer six questions.

Two weeks before a regional workshop series data were collected on health outcomes of patients with diagnosis X. Similar data were the collected 90 days after the workshop.

Additional Contextual Information:

• It is recognized that in related educational fields the terms assessment and evaluation (defined elsewhere in the glossary) are used interchangeably, and that even within our field some professionals do the same. But it is the current recommendation to separate the two. Better to be more precise, than less.