The eOSCE: advancing technology to improve students' learning and assessment reliability

Assessment of practical skills is essential in the health fields and usually occurs using Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs), where examiners assess students performing clinical techniques on simulated patients (actors). Conventionally, OSCEs require considerable time-investment to administer, and restrict timely, accurate, individualised and specific student feedback. This collaborative project will introduce an innovative mechanism for assessing students' practical skills in the health professions. The 'eOSCE' will provide an alternative to paper-based conventional methods with an electronic marking and feedback system utilising Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). The eOSCE is administered via PDAs that have specialised software for recording performance and for providing student feedback. There is evidence from studies overseas that similar electronic marking systems are effective and preferred over conventional methods for practical assessments, but the eOSCE has not been formally trialled in an Australian context. We hypothesise that it will provide a more reliable and timely assessment strategy for assessing the learned skills of physiotherapy and occupational therapy students.