Keynote Session 3: Tuesday 13 March

3A
The top 10 myths on standard setting
Dr André De Champlain
National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners, Philadelphia, USA


Standard setting constitutes a critical activity for any organization or school involved in assessment.  This is especially true in medicine where there is a need to assure the public that graduates, as well as license and certificate holders, possess the skills and knowledge necessary for safe and effective patient care. Furthermore, research has suggested that performance on certain examinations is related to the likelihood of committing egregious acts in (future) practice.  Therefore, standard setting impacts not only the “here & now” but also future quality of care. The goal of this presentation is to outline 10 common standard setting myths which will hopefully contribute to a more defensible use of methods and valid interpretation of results.

André De Champlain, PhD, is Director for Innovations in Testing at the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners.  He is chiefly responsible for overseeing  developmental and psychometric research efforts aimed at supporting the inclusion of innovative item types and maintenance of licensure tools in COMLEX-USA, the licensing examination program for Osteopathic physicians in the United States. Dr De Champlain has published extensively over the past two decades on a broad range of topics, most of which relate to novel applications of psychometric models in medical education.  His most recent publications have focused on the use of correspondence analysis and survival data analysis to gather validity evidence for high stakes medical licensing examination programs. He has been the recipient of several research awards, including best paper honors bestowed by the Association of American Medical Colleges (1998) and the American Educational Research Association (2001).

3B
Widening perspectives on assessment
Professor Cees van der Vleuten
Maastricht University, Netherlands



Assessment is area in medical education that has evolved enormously across the recent decades. The literature is dominated by studies on reliability and validity of assessment methods. However, this represents mainly one discourse or perspective on assessment: the psychometric perspective. Yet assessment can be approached from different perspectives, each providing interesting lessons from its discourse and its research. This plenary will review each of these perspectives and sketch the implications for the practice and the research of assessment.

Cees van der Vleuten, Ph.D, came to the University of Maastricht in 1982. He was appointed as a Professor of Education in 1996 at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences and chair of the Department of Educational Development and Research. In 2005 he was appointed as the Scientific Director of the School of Health Professions Education (www.she.unimaas.nl). His area of expertise lies in evaluation and assessment. He has published widely on these topics, holds numerous academic awards for his work, including several career awards. He has frequently served as a consultant internationally. He is and has been a mentor for many researchers in medical education. In 2010 he received a royal decoration for the societal impact of his work. A full curriculum vitae can be found at: http://www.fdg.unimaas.nl/educ/cees/CV/.