Rapid Blueprinting: An Efficient Method for Designing Content of Assessments

Area of Science:

• Medical Education Assessment
• Psychometrics
• Test Development

Background:

• Effective assessment in medical education requires rigorous content development (blueprinting).
• Traditional blueprinting methods are often time- and resource-intensive, relying on practice analysis and linking methods.
• There is a need for efficient and cost-effective blueprinting approaches in medical assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore an efficient and effective alternate method for creating content blueprints for medical credentialing and evaluation examinations.
• To introduce a rapid blueprinting method focused directly on assessment requirements.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of a streamlined approach to assessment design.

Main Methods:

• A two-phase process was employed, starting with a 1-day direct meeting of content experts.
• Phase 2 involved a corroboration survey sent to a wider group of content experts.
• The rapid blueprinting method was applied to develop eleven blueprints for various medical and health professions assessments.

Main Results:

• The rapid blueprinting method yielded effective, well-balanced, and operational examinations.
• Blueprints were successfully implemented in item writing and test development.
• Assessments demonstrated psychometrically sound inferences, with KR-20 reliability coefficients ranging from .87 to .92.

Conclusions:

• The rapid blueprinting method is effective, feasible, cost- and time-effective for examination design.
• This approach successfully created rigorous assessment blueprints.
• The rapid blueprinting method can be explored for broader implementation in local assessment settings.