Step-by-step Guide to Create Competency-Based Assignments as an Alternative for Traditional Summative Assessment.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Assessment in Higher Education

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted traditional medical school assessments, rendering conventional summative tools ineffective.
• The shift to remote learning presented significant challenges in curricular design and student evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a practical, five-step guide for developing competency-based e-assignments for summative assessment in medical education.
• To address the need for innovative, fair, and engaging assessment strategies during and after the pandemic.

Main Methods:

• Development of a five-step framework for designing competency-based e-assignments.
• Emphasis on assignment characteristics: innovative, engaging, competency-based, well-designed with rubrics, integrated, and interdisciplinary.
• Inclusion of self-assessment and peer assessment components, with student involvement in design.

Main Results:

• The proposed framework facilitates the creation of effective summative e-assessments.
• Student engagement and self-confidence are enhanced through quality product-oriented assignments and collaborative design.
• A case study illustrates the practical application of the e-assignment design principles.

Conclusions:

• Competency-based e-assignments are essential for fair summative assessment in medical education, particularly in the pre-clerkship phase.
• The pandemic is likely to drive lasting changes in assessment strategies, potentially shifting the roles of formative and summative evaluations.