Advising the Advisor

Maria Danzie, Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine
Patricia Camberos,Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific
Examsoft Assessment Conference, 2017

Background: Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine (ACOM) and Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (WUCOMP) use ExamSoft to tag exam questions throughout the curriculum with the domain categories for Board Learning Outcomes, Program Learning Outcomes, and Institutional Learning Outcomes. This aggregate data is valuable for curriculum development and accreditation/assessment reporting to ensure students are meeting outcomes across the curriculum. However, individual student longitudinal outcome data can also be useful to faculty advisors as they help students understand their strengths and weaknesses across the curriculum to better prepare for the National Board Exams.

Problem: ExamSoft longitudinal reports are only accessible in ExamSoft by power users. The data is difficult to manually disaggregate to the individual student level and then distribute to students, advisors, and staff. The ultimate question became, “How can institutions get data from tagged exam questions in front of Faculty Advisors and Academic Support Staff to assist students at risk of failing while abiding by FERPA?”

Solution: ACOM and WUCOMP both use ProgressIQ which integrates data from all sources, including ExamSoft. The easy to use interface provided by ProgressIQ allows the ExamSoft longitudinal reports to be reported on a per-student basis. Since ProgressIQ gives permissions-based access to all student data in one easy to view snapshot, an individual student and the student’s advisor are able to see the ExamSoft longitudinal report data for just that student ensuring FERPA compliance. The student and advisor can then assess the academic strengths and weaknesses of the student across the curriculum, not just within individual courses. With one click, the student and advisor can also access data visualizations in ProgressIQ to show how the student compares to the rest of their cohort in all ExamSoft tagged outcome areas.

Results: ACOM and WUCOMP students can see their progress for every domain in each learning outcome in comparison to their cohort throughout their entire time in the program keeping them continuously informed. Students can be notified when they fall below a threshold for each learning outcome and are immediately connected to their advisor for additional support. By providing cross-curriculum data to students and advisors in an easy to access and understand format, ProgressIQ equips advisors and students with the information needed to create more targeted study plans for the board exams to give students a better chance at success.

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