Best Practices / Research Oral Abstract

Doing it Right: The Promise of Diagnostic Reporting in a CE Context (O046)

Greg Sadesky (Yardstick); Greg Pope (Yardstick)

Reporting of information is both an art and a science. In a continuing education context, a well-designed report could mean the difference between a well-executed professional development plan and one without clear and defensible focus. This is particularly true when such a plan depends upon the feedback from the performance on a formative assessment tool, such as a Knowledge Assessment. Increasingly, many health professions are including as a component of continuing education, an assessment that provides information on the performance of the professional in terms of competency areas. In order to maximize the potential of the assessment in terms of professional development, it would be extremely beneficial to draw on best practice guidelines in the area of information visualization. These guidelines would be used to provide test-takers with reports that are informative, yet intuitive and interpretable. Using mainly examples from a computer-based, online context, this session provides a journey through the current and future landscape of diagnostic reporting that helps realize the potential of using assessment data to create targeted and meaningful professional development plans. Session attendees will take from this session reporting principles, ideas, and models that can be used to enhance their continuing education programs.