Self-Assessment to Guide Continued Education Objectives for Recertification

Case Studies - Develop & Deliver: Item and Test Development

ACS TEAM ON PROJECT

    • Russ Keglovits, MS. Ed. Assessment Specialist
    • Kelley Stethen, MS Ed. Psychometric Associate
    • Chad Buckendahl, Ph.D. Chief Scientist

CLIENT

An international certification organization in the healthcare field. It is U.S. based with regional presence around the world.

PROJECT

The organization wanted to offer self-assessment as an option for recertification. Further, they wanted examinees to be able to use the results to guide their continuing education (CE) plans. The purpose of the self-assessment is to help credential holders select CE topics depending on their practice setting, professional goals, and future interests within their recertification period.

The ACS team led the development of an online self-assessment program for recertification.  The project also included mapping the assessment to the revised Detailed Content Outline (DCO) and designing of self-assessment score report. The self-assessment is now being delivered across multiple countries and in seventeen (17) languages.

UNIQUE VALUE

The ACS team brought psychometric and operational expertise including:

  • helping the Client determine the overall test design, including the number and type of items, administration time and scoring model
  • training an international pool of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to create content for the self-assessment,
  • leading item development in compliance with the exam blueprint,

Championing agility and collaboration, the ACS team adapted item writing activities to a new platform and an online tool selected by Client.

After a pilot administration, ACS issued a final report on the item performance and shared recommendations for sustainability of the program.

SUSTAINABILITY

ACS Team continues to collaborate with Client on SME training, item writing, and pretesting items to ensure a healthy item pool and multiple forms to sustain a successful program.

As a next step for this program, the Client plans to seek third-party accreditation and the ACS Team will conduct a program review, audit, and issue a report with applicable recommendations as part of accreditation support to the Client.