Innovative learning: employing medical students to write formative assessments

Peninsula Medical School, UK, employed six students to write MCQ items for a formative applied medical knowledge item bank. The students successfully generated 260 quality MCQs in their six-week contracted period. Informal feedback from students and two staff mentors suggests that the exercise provided a very effective learning environment and that students felt they were 'being paid to learn'. Further research is under way to track the progress of the students involved in the exercise, and to formally evaluate the impact on learning.