MEDEV

School of Medical Sciences Education Development

New external examiners: A practical survival guide

Date: 1 day event - 26 Apr 2007

Aims

Overall, this workshop aims to raise the standards of external examining by laying the groundwork for accessing relevant documentation and assuring equivalent standards across the country in this subject centre?s disciplines.

Activities

Participants will have the opportunity to learn about best practice in assessment through small group and plenary work; and to take part in variety of experiential activities dealing with difficult situations for external examiners.

Proposed outcomes

This workshop will help participants to:
* become familiar with existing national documentation from the QAA and the professional regulatory bodies, as well as HEI assessment documentation
* appreciate the factors enabling the function of an external examiners
* identify what to look when evaluating written and clinical examinations
* recognise best practice in assessment
deal with difficult situations

Facilitators & Speakers

• Trudie Roberts - Co-facilitator

Facilitator background

Kathy Boursicot has been an external examiner for six years for a variety of institutions, including medical and veterinary undergraduate schools in the UK as well as abroad. She was one of the facilitators of the HEA?s original workshop on role of the external examiner of Health Care undergraduate programmes in 2004 and has been an active member of the JISC external examiner mailing list. She was commissioned by the HEA to conduct a series of focus groups in 2006 to explore the ways in which external examiners made judgements about standards in undergraduate medicine and dentistry examinations. She has conducted workshops for external examiners at Barts and The London and Cambridge medical schools for 4 years.

Trudie Roberts has been an external examiner for undergraduate medical courses for eight years, acting in this capacity at six different medical schools. She has also acted as external assessment advisor to a number of UK medical schools. She led Leeds Medical School in reviewing their assessment system to align with best practice as described in QAA documentation. She is also an Visitor for the GMC?s Quality Assurance of Basic Medical Education programme.

Target audience

External examiners with less than two years experience and staff who are recently appointed or who are considering becoming external examiners.

Venue & Location

Resources

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