The End of Curriculum™ Exam Buzz Is On
Through a series of presentations and an activation space, members at the Forum earlier this month learned all about the new End of Curriculum exam. In this article, we recap the event and also highlight materials from the sessions with links to the Digital Learning Hub. And at the end of the article, the winner of our End of Curriculum exam launch drawing will be revealed!
The PAEA Assessment activation space was the go-to spot for members’ questions about PACKRAT®, End of RotationTM exams, and the End of Curriculum exam. Staff, led by Relationship Coordinator Chiquita Carey, and Exam Development Board (EDB) chairs talked with Forum attendees about the exam development process, tips for implementing PAEA Assessment exams, and of course, the End of Curriculum exam. The infographics handed out are available here in the Digital Learning Hub (DLH).
The team hosted two of our annual sessions at this year’s Forum. On Friday afternoon, the PACKRAT EDB presented their Item Writing Workshop, where participants learned about item development and exam construction and worked through an exercise where they identified and corrected issues with test questions.
As director of assessment, I presented the annual event “Trading Places: End of Rotation Exam Preview for Faculty.” Participants took one section of a version 6 Family Medicine End of Rotation exam, with the team acting as proctors.
The Assessment Team talked a lot about proctoring throughout the Forum, reintroducing everyone to the Super Proctors. You may have seen the set of water bottles featuring these superheroes. You can learn more about best practices by watching the series of videos here, also in the DLH, or on our Proctoring Resources page.
The team also hosted three sessions on the End of Curriculum exam featuring information that will help programs in their conversations about adopting the exam. The presentation slide decks are posted in the PAEA Assessment Products channel in the DLH.
On Thursday, Assessment Specialist Denise Rizzolo, PhD, PA-C, and End of Curriculum EDB Chair Anne Schempp, EdD, PA-C, presented two sessions of “End of Curriculum Exam: Introduction and Overview.” These sessions focused on the characteristics of the exam — the blueprint and scoring process — and the development process from guiding principles through standard setting.
On Friday, we shifted gears to the technical aspects of the exam. The Assessment Team twice conducted a workshop entitled “End of Curriculum Exam: A Technical Overview,” which included a brief presentation on policies, acknowledgments, purchasing, scheduling, administering, and scoring the exam, then led a reverse world café where staff answered questions about each of those topics.
Finally, Saturday was all about curricular implementation. Assessment Editor in Chief Kim Cavanagh, DHSc, PA-C, presented two sessions of “End of Curriculum Exam: Achieving Alignment,” which walked participants through the process of aligning a program’s local mission, goals, and outcomes with summative assessment tools. The session was a model of the types of conversations faculty should be having before adopting a new assessment tool like the PAEA End of Curriculum exam.
Attendees who participated in all three End of Curriculum exam sessions had the opportunity to enter a drawing for a free End of Curriculum exam administration for their program. We had 37 participants who attended all five hours of sessions. The winner, who has also been notified via email, is Gail Murphy of Mercy College. Thanks for attending the sessions, and congratulations!
Stay tuned over the coming weeks for more information about the End of Curriculum exam, including modules of the three sessions, details on the standardized scores, and more! In the meantime, please feel free to contact us with any questions at exams@PAEAonline.org or 301-617-7820.
