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Studying for an exam is now easy, simple, and fun with Cram. Cram's multiple-choice testing mode resembles the type of tests you're used to from images, to multiple answers, to timed tests. When your test is over, Cram grades and records your test performance so you can track your progress.

This pattern suggests that students who are tested throughout the semester with high-level questions acquire deep conceptual understanding of the material and better memory for the course information

Here, we show that practicing retrieval produces greater gains in meaningful learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. The advantage of retrieval practice generalized across texts identical to those commonly found in science education. The advantage of retrieval practice was observed with test questions that assessed comprehension and required students to make inferences. The advantage of retrieval practice occurred even when the criterial test involved creating concept maps. Our findings support the theory that retrieval practice enhances learning by retrieval-specific mechanisms rather than by elaborative study processes. Retrieval practice is an effective tool to promote conceptual learning about science.

"In developing the TEQ, we created a parsimonious scale that is short, clear and homogenous and has strong psychometric properties including a robust single factor structure, high internal consistency, construct validity and test re-test reliability. "

A great handbook for test and exam developers.

ePBLMs are actual patient cases in CD format that permits free inquiry. The learner can ask any question of the patient in any sequence and get the patient's response and perform any item of the physical examination in any sequence and learn the result as in the real clinical situation. Any laboratory and diagnostic test can be ordered in any sequence as well. Whatever can be done with the actual patient on history and physical and the ordering of laboratory tests can be done with the ePBLM. A separate "User's Guide" provided with each ePBLM can be used with any of the ePBLMs in the series and provides the key for free inquiry.

The AARP just met with the leadership of the Mayo Clinic, one of the most outstanding medical institutions in the country. They provide excellent care at a cost that is less than most other parts of the healthcare system - and with improved outcomes. We asked them about their secret to success. Mayo has an electronic medical record and all their patients have their information online. The physicians are on salary, so there's no incentive to order unnecessary tests or procedures, and Mayo has an ethic of patient-centered care, with a long history of attracting the best people and rewarding them. If Mayo can do it, why can't everyone else? The AARP believes that the potential is there for most communities to have excellent care - we must emulate the care delivery of institutions like the Mayo Clinic, and put in place payment and information systems that will coordinate care management better. It's a big job and will take some investment, but we have many opportunities to do a better job than we're doing today.

"STATworkUP™ has an immense amount of correlated data between symptoms, tests, diagnoses and treatments. While the app cannot be relied upon to thoroughly determine a differential diagnosis or provide an evidence-based summary of therapy, it can serve as an additional arrow in the clinicians quiver especially when wrestling with an uncommon diagnostic dilemma."

"Peer assessment of teaching can improve the quality of instruction and contribute to summative evaluation of teaching effectiveness integral to high-stakes decision making. There is, however, a paucity of validated, criterion-based peer assessment instruments. The authors describe development and pilot testing of one such instrument and share lessons learned"

"Assessment can be defined as "the process of collecting, synthesizing and interpreting information to aid decision making."1 Key to this process is: Mapping the assessment to the learning objective; and Mapping the assessment instrument to the sophistication of learning being tested."

"Don't overlook the value of higher-level multiple-choice questions for teaching. In areas where the target audience has some degree of prior knowledge, or where their life experience is relevant, I often make online courses denser by using multiple-choice exercises instead of the more traditional present-and-test format. This technique is also useful when there is room for judgment, or the preferred choice is conditional and you want the student to understand how different circumstances can affect the preferred action."

"In this blog, we discussed diagnostic tests and their relationship with likelihood ratios as well as heuristics and cognitive errors."

By considering clinical reasoning as a skill to be learnt rather than a concept to be understood, a framework for teaching this skill can be developed. The learner initially observes a consultation by the teaching clinician, followed by the teacher explaining the reasoning processes used including hypothesising, hypothesis testing, re-analysis and differential diagnosis. The student then comments on the reasoning of the teacher in a subsequent consultation, followed by feedback from the teacher on the student's reasoning in a third consultation.

"The results showed some evidence of significant differences between groups tested preworkshop and postworkshop. Higher scores were observed for the posttest group compared to the pretest group only for OSTE items focusing on prioritizing and limiting the amount of feedback given at one time and on action planning."

eMedTV offers over 100 health channels, each serving as a portal to an extensive library of medical information. Our articles explore subjects ranging from symptoms and diseases to tests and procedures to drugs and supplements.

Post about a paper published in Computers and Education 2008 comparing student test results depending on whether they attended a specific classroom lecture or listened to the lecture as a podcast. There is also a link to the article. The results indicate that the students who listened to the podcast and tool notes scored significantly higher than the lecture condition.

"This case reinforces the importance of interpreting test results with caution and with attention to the clinical picture. Effective communication between the nurses and specialists caring for the patient led to the correct diagnosis and a good clinical outcome. This clinical scenario and clinical problem-solving exercise emphasize the importance of looking at the "hole" picture."

A web-based tool, Continuity of Care Online Simulations (COCOS), was designed for use in a one-month, postgraduate clinical rotation in endocrinology. It is an interactive tool that simulates the continuing care of any patient with a chronic endocrine disease. Twenty-three residents in internal medicine participated in a study to investigate the effects of using COCOS during a clinical rotation in endocrinology on pre-post knowledge test scores and self-assessment of confidence.