We live in a celebrity-obsessed world and our medical students are no more immune to the glamour of celebrity than anyone else. When teaching medical students about a certain medical illness I used to tell them about a celebrity who suffers from this illness. I did this to get their attention and to stimulate their interest but even though the…

Context: A major goal of any evaluation is to demonstrate content validity, which considers both curricular content as well as the ability expected of learners. Whether evaluation blueprints should be published and the degree of blueprint transparency is controversial. Objectives: To examine the effect of blueprint publication on students'…

Background: Student feedback is a valuable method to evaluate the quality of education. Using a WEB-based questionnaire, the objective of this study was to evaluate the factors that may affect the ratings given by the students and the impact of those ratings on the instructor's teaching performance. Methods: The questionnaire was organized into…

The construct of emotional intelligence (EI) has gained increasing popularity over the last 10 years and now has a relatively large academic and popular associated literature. EI is beginning to be discussed within the medical education literature, where, however, it is treated uncritically. This reflections paper aims to stimulate thought about…

Purpose: This study sought to assess the introduction of a web-based innovation in medical education that complements traditional problem-based learning curricula. Utilizing the case method as its fundamental educational approach, the Interactive Case-based Online Network (ICON) allows students to interact with each other, faculty and a virtual…

The ECFMG[R] Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA[R]) was developed to evaluate whether graduates of international medical schools (IMGs) are ready to enter graduate training programs in the United States. The patient note (PN) exercise is specifically used to assess a candidate's ability to summarize and synthesize the data collected in a simulated…

Utilization of objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) for final assessment of medical students in Internal Medicine requires a representative sample of OSCE stations. The reliability and generalizability of OSCE scores provides validity evidence for OSCE scores and supports its contribution to the final clinical grade of medical…

The aims of this paper are to examine the measurement properties of the Reflection-in-Learning Scale (RLS) and to identify whether there are relationships between RLS scores early in the medical program and outcomes of the students' academic activity later on. The 14-item RLS was administered to second-year students (N=275) at start and at end of…

Background and Objectives: At McMaster University, the birthplace of problem-based learning (PBL), administrators and curriculum planners have begun the process of renewing the undergraduate MD curriculum. One step has been to conduct an environmental scan that includes input from medical residents. Methods: Individual interviews with 17 medical…

This qualitative study explored health sciences students' perceptions of their experiences in online problem based learning (PBL) and focused on their views about learning and group process in the online environment. Participants were novices to online learning and highly experienced in PBL, therefore, they could reflect on past face-to-face PBL…

In 2001, Dr. Jordan Cohen, President of the AAMC, called for medical schools to consider using an Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) threshold to eliminate high-risk applicants from consideration and then to use non-academic qualifications for further consideration. This approach would seem to be consistent with the recent Supreme Court ruling…

Introduction: In group learning settings like problem-based learning (PBL), the quality of interaction is closely related to group success. However, research and practice have shown that the interaction in tutorial groups is not optimal. In the present study, a questionnaire was used to measure students' perceptions of occurrence and desirability…

Objective: A search for universal and particular changes in emotional, behavioral and cognitive assessments in relation to three types of examinations: an oral presentation, an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and a pencil and paper examination. Methods: One hundred and two students of health professions completed the Profile of…

The purpose of this research was to study the effects of violations of standard multiple-choice item writing principles on test characteristics, student scores, and pass-fail outcomes. Four basic science examinations, administered to year-one and year-two medical students, were randomly selected for study. Test items were classified as either…

Many efforts to teach and evaluate physician-patient communication are based on two assumptions: first, that communication can be conceptualized as consisting of specific observable behaviors, and second, that physicians who exhibit certain behaviors are more effective in communicating with patients. These assumptions are usually implicit, and are…