title: Innovative learning: employing medical students to write formative assessments.
abstract: Peninsula Medical School, UK, employed six students to write MCQ items for a formative applied medical knowledge item bank. The students successfully generated 260 quality MCQs in their six-week contracted period. Informal feedback from students and two staff mentors suggests that the exercise provided a very effective learning environment and that students felt they were 'being paid to learn'. Further research is under way to track the progress of the students involved in the exercise, and to formally evaluate the impact on learning.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Education, Peninsula Medical School, University of Exeter, UK. schamberlain@aqa.org.uk
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chamberlain
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oldham
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.forename: Nicky
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ricketts
mesh_terms: D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D017145:Models, Educational; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D006113:United Kingdom; D014956:Writing