Improve Learning Outcomes with Detailed Performance Reports

Dec. 1, 2012 - PRLog -- Case Study

Improving Student Retention and Enhancing Learning Outcomes with Detailed Performance Reports for Osteopathic Medicine from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York

Description

The Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York wanted a better way to provide students with feedback and evaluate its programs, in order to retain more students and graduate more well-prepared physicians.

Background

Founded in 2007, the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York is committed to training physicians who are dedicated to addressing complex health issues, including health care disparities. The institution prepares students for clinical practice by using a variety of advanced learning tools, including a simulation center, biomedical research laboratories, and standardized patient encounters.

The Problem

The school wanted a better way to provide students with feedback and evaluate its programs, in order to retain more students and graduate more well-prepared physicians. The school recognizes how hard students work to gain admission to medical school and succeed, once enrolled, so it dedicated itself to giving its students the information and feedback they desire to make informed academic decisions, guide self-study efforts, and effectively remediate, when necessary. At the same time, it sought a solution to assess its curriculum and identify opportunities for improvement in teaching and testing.

While exams provide a direct, immediate assessment of a student’s performance, the online solution the university was using only provided basic information. Faculty members could not practically create reports to measure student performance with appropriate detail, identify individual students’ strengths and weaknesses, or measure curricular effectiveness.

Faculty members were unable to categorize exam questions as they desired, which limited their reporting and feedback options. The absence of specific feedback meant students often did not study the right material to address their previous problems. In the end, students who spent more time studying old material to address previous poor performance, performed progressively worse while they tried to keep up with a medical program, which continues to build on material learned earlier in the semester.

The Solution

The Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine implemented ExamSoft’s exam management (http://learn.examsoft.com/examsoft-ei-computer-based-test...) and reporting solution, which enabled the faculty to provide detailed and specific learning outcomes feedback to students, while generating detailed reports to evaluate their curriculum. Ultimately, the college graduated more physicians because of the improved reporting system.

With ExamSoft, faculty members use a collaborative, online item bank to enter questions, tag questions with a virtually unlimited number of self-defined categories, and exam creation (http://learn.examsoft.com/examsoft-ei-computer-based-testing-software) based on question performance and category content. Using the category framework and the vast amount of analytical data provided by ExamSoft, the college created a series of detailed reports, which break down real-time learning outcomes data for faculty, students, and administrators.

The faculty reports provide valuable data on overall class performance and individual student performance. For the first time, faculty members are able to evaluate how their instruction in class is mapping to the course’s stated objectives, which enables them to make mid-semester adjustments, if needed. In addition, faculty can identify students with learning gaps and intervene earlier with customized, specific feedback for self-directed learning throughout the semester.

The real-time performance data generated by ExamSoft also empowers students and helps improve self-directed learning efforts in a variety of ways. Upon completing an exam, students gain access to in-depth information outlining performance by category. This assists students in identifying their own strengths and weaknesses, and enables them to focus on improving knowledge of specific subject matter much earlier in the semester.

Finally, the data gives administrators access to the details and information they need to measure institutional effectiveness, impact student retention rates, and create reports to simplify the accreditation process.

The Results

Dramatically improved student retention rates
Facilitated self-directed learning
Improved student learning outcomes
Increased overall institutional effectiveness

The real-time performance data generated by ExamSoft also empowers students and helps improve learning outcomes (http://learn.examsoft.com/improved-learning-outcomes) and improve self-directed learning efforts in a variety of ways. Upon completing an exam, students gain access to in-depth information outlining performance by category. This assists students in identifying their own strengths and weaknesses, and enables them to focus on improving knowledge of specific subject matter much earlier in the semester.

About ExamSoft

ExamSoft offers a turnkey solution for computer-based testing, exam creation, delivery, scoring and analysis an easy and reliable process. ExamSoft has served the testing needs of prominent academic, certification, and licensing institutions for more than 13 years. More information on computer based exams is available a http://learn.examsoft.com/examsoft-ei-computer-based-testing-software