How Do Clerkship Students Use EPA Data? Illuminating Students' Perspectives as Partners in Programs of Assessment

Abstract

Introduction: The implementation of programs of assessment based on Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) offers an opportunity for students to obtain unique data to guide their ongoing learning and development. Although authors have explored factors that contribute to trust-based decisions, learners' use of assessors' decisions about the level of supervision they need has not been fully investigated.

Methods: In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews of clerkship students who participated in the first year of our EPA program to determine how they interpret and use supervision ratings provided in EPA assessments. Content analysis was performed using concept-driven and open coding.

Results: Nine interviews were completed. Twenty-two codes derived from previous work describing factors involved in trust decisions and 12 novel codes were applied to the interview text. Analyses revealed that students focus on written and verbal feedback from assessors more so than on supervision ratings. Axial coding revealed a temporal organization that categorized how students considered the data from EPA assessments. While factors before, during, and after an assessment affected students' use of information, the relationship between the student and the assessor had impact throughout.

Conclusions: Although students reported varying use of the supervision ratings, their perspectives about how assessors and students interact and/or partner before, during, and after assessments provide insights into the importance of an educational alliance in making a program of assessment meaningful and acceptable to learners.

Keywords: Assessment for learning; Student–teacher relationship; EPA assessments; Trust-based decisions.

Fig. 1

How factors that affect learners’ use of data from assessment are situated temporally pre-, during, post-, and throughout an EPA assessment