Accreditation: A self-regulatory process by which governmental, nongovernmental, and voluntary associations or other statutory bodies grant formal recognition to educational programs or institutions that meet stated criteria of educational quality. Measurement against these standards includes reviews of written information, program self-studies, site visits to the educational program, and thoughtful consideration of the findings by a review committee. Whereas programs or institutions are accredited, individual physicians are licensed or certified.
Assessment: An evaluation or measurement of students’ knowledge, skills, or attitude.
Assessment program: A mix of various assessment methods that are deliberately composed and appropriate for the aims, content, and structure of the curriculum.
Authenticity: A form of validity that refers to how similar an assessment is to the actual job that people are required to do or to the context in which they are required to do it.
Automated item generation: Item construction technology in which computer algorithms combine the elements of item models designed and developed by content specialists to produce a large number of test items in a short period of time.
Bias: The extent to which an assessment measures factors other than what it was designed to measure.
CanMEDS: Competency framework in health professions education.
Cognitive model: Structured framework containing the knowledge, skills, and content necessary to answer a test item; representation of the cognitive steps used by experts to approach a particular problem.
Computer-based testing (CBT): Tests administered with a computer, which implements processes to select and administer items. Students’ performance is scored, and their ability in each item is categorized.
Criterion-referenced standard setting: Testing candidates against an absolute standard determined by examiner consensus, item performance data, or a combination of these sources.
Curriculum alignment: A process aimed at ensuring consistency between the intended learning outcomes, the planned and delivered curriculum, teaching and learning activities, and assessment content and processes for both classroom and workplace-based learning.
Edumetric perspective: From this perspective, tests are designed to detect student’s learning and development. The tests yield scores that are meaningful without reference to the performance of others.
Electronic Portfolio (ePortfolio): That may include documents and aggregates and visualizes assessment data points, providing comprehensive overviews of the assessment data.
Equivalence of assessment: A broad term encompassing processes that lead to equivalent decisions being made as a result of assessments regardless of where or when they occurred.
External quality assurance: The systems that are designed and operated by an external agency (often mandated by law) to monitor the quality of education provided by higher education institutions.
Fairness: Impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination.
False positive and false negative results: Sometimes candidates are able to answer a question correctly without having sufficient specific competence or, vice versa, the question leads them to provide an incorrect answer despite having sufficient specific competence. False positive and false negative results can occur at all levels; an individual item can generate a false positive and false negative answer, students can undeservedly pass fail a test, or students can even ...