Assessment

Mastery assessments (MA) are usually conducted at the end of course blocks. These blocks, which can range from one to more than ten weeks depending on the topic, segment the academic year into focused units of study. MAs are integrative assessments that require students to synthesize knowledge from various courses, reflecting a more holistic understanding of the material. By challenging students to integrate information across disciplines, MAs ensure that learning is not isolated but interconnected, mirroring the complex nature of medical practice.

Progress tests are administered three times a year for the first three years of the program and twice in the last year. Progress tests are aimed at preparing students for the Medical Council of Canada’s  Qualifying Exam, assessing cumulative knowledge and readiness for the high-stakes licensing exam, providing both students and faculty with benchmarks for academic and professional progress. Between 80 and 100 multiple-choice items will be drawn from a large item bank linked to the learning outcomes.

The tests will integrate clinical knowledge and application of knowledge from different courses. The tests’ main focus (75% to 85%) will be on biomedical and clinical aspects of medicine with the remainder (25% to 15%) focusing on other aspects such as health systems science and communication. The tests will be scored to demonstrate progression towards expected levels of competence. Students will be provided with feedback that includes a raw score, breakdown of score by course/topic (for students to gauge areas of strength and improvement), and the expectation for their level

Performance-based assessments are crucial for evaluating practical skills in clinical reasoning and decision-making. In these assessments, students demonstrate their abilities in real or simulated clinical settings under the observation of a preceptor. This hands-on approach allows for the assessment of competencies that are critical for medical practice, such as patient interaction, diagnostic accuracy, and therapeutic planning.

MD students are also assessed on the basis of their competence in soft skills such as communication, collaboration, leadership, professionalism and critical reasoning. Assessments in these domains are generally done through observation of those competencies in the real world situations both pre-clerkship and during clerkship. The data for these assessments are captured from different sources such as peers, preceptors, community stakeholders, supervisors etc.

This will involve direct observation of practice and demonstration of applied clinical skills in a structured simulated fashion. A simulation facility is utilized to provide the necessary setting, services, and equipment to provide the breadth of opportunities needed by the curriculum (e.g. suturing wounds on a plastic mannequin part, breaking bad news, working with an interpreter, delivering acute care to an urgent presentation such as an arrest or mental health crisis). These simulations will be designed to assess key learning outcomes with the aid of milestones related to teamwork, procedures, and clinical scenarios. They will be in areas in which students need extensive coaching before assuming responsibility in leading care. Such areas may not be in their clinical encounters and may involve a patient care presentation that is inappropriate for students to lead due to the risk and acuity for their level of training (e.g. life or limb-threatening emergencies, giving bad news). Students will be assessed using standard assessment forms and provided with feedback through structured debriefs.

Students will rotate through a finite series of pre-selected clinical encounters in which they demonstrate a time-sensitive history-taking, physical examination, clinical decision-making, communication, collaboration, professional behaviours and basic management with a simulated patient and are assessed by a trained faculty assessor. Some OSCEs will be formative with two to three stations and feedback provided to students at the end of each station. These formative OSCEs will occur two to three times per year. There will also be more comprehensive higher-stakes OSCEs with 8 to 10 stations during phases 2 and 3 of the program, where students demonstrate skills with standardized patients and are observed by a trained and skilled examiner. Students must meet the expected standard for the OSCE to progress to the next phase. They will be provided with feedback both within the stations and after the examinations including a pass/fail result. Should a student fail this examination, there will be an opportunity for a reassessment.

Students learning in small groups will receive formative and summative assessments from peers, facilitators, and at times other participants (i.e. standardized patients). Students will receive feedback and assessment on teamwork, participation, preparation, collaboration, communication and professional actions. An assessment-rating rubric for the small group learning context will be developed and explained to faculty.

In certain courses including Person-centred Care, Personal and Professional Development and Community and Global Health, students will be asked to self-reflect on certain experiences. These will be guided reflections and must be completed in order to progress.

Projects serve as self-directed learning, helping students develop skills for their careers, regardless of career choice. Students will have expectations to be met by the end of each project. Completion of project expectations is required for progression in the courses. As an example, all students will complete a community-based project with a community agency or institution serving diverse and equity-deserving members of the local community in Brampton/Peel. This will provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their competencies in understanding the role in care outcomes that the determinants of health make. Assessment of these projects will be based on predetermined criteria including self-reflection exercises, community feedback, and formative and summative assessment rubrics to ensure that the student has met the defined learning outcomes to an acceptable standard.

Student learning in laboratories is mostly in Anatomy. Students will receive formative and summative assessments based on rubrics in order to demonstrate key learning outcomes. This will occur in the first two phases of the program.