Experience in developing and implementing the self-directed learning assessment tools among undergraduate medical...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Professions Education

Background:

• Digital technology necessitates lifelong learning for health professionals.
• Self-directed learning (SDL) fosters lifelong learning and social skills in undergraduate health students.
• The study focuses on the Indian context for physiology education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate facilitator and peer score sheets for assessing SDL.
• To create reliable assessment tools for undergraduate physiology students in India.

Main Methods:

• The Delphi technique was used for developing and validating the score sheets.
• A pilot test was conducted on an SDL module for undergraduate physiology students.
• Content Validity Index (CVI) and Coefficient of Variance (CV) were used for validation.

Main Results:

• Facilitator Score Sheet (FSS) achieved a CVI of 0.977 for 10 items.
• Peer Score Sheet (PSS) achieved a CVI of 0.90 for seven items.
• Certain items in FSS and PSS exceeded the acceptable CV threshold, indicating a need for modification.

Conclusions:

• Assessment strategies must align with cognitive and affective gains in SDL modules.
• The developed score sheets require modification based on stakeholder feedback before wider implementation.
• Further refinement is needed to optimize these tools for evaluating SDL in health professions education.