title: A mentor-based portfolio program to evaluate pharmacy students' self-assessment skills.
abstract: Objective. To evaluate pharmacy students' self-assessment skills with an electronic portfolio program using mentor evaluators. Design. First-year (P1) and second-year (P2) pharmacy students used online portfolios that required self-assessments of specific graded class assignments. Using a rubric, faculty and alumni mentors evaluated students' self-assessments and provided feedback. Assessment. Eighty-four P1 students, 74 P2 students, and 59 mentors participated in the portfolio program during 2010-2011. Both student groups performed well overall, with only a small number of resubmissions required. P1 students showed significant improvements across semesters for 2 of the self-assessment questions; P2 students' scores did not differ significantly. The P1 scores were significantly higher than P2 scores for 3 questions during spring 2011. Mentors and students had similar levels of agreement with the extent to which students put forth their best effort on the self-assessments. Conclusion. An electronic portfolio using mentors based inside and outside the school provided students with many opportunities to practice their self-assessment skills. This system represents a useful method of incorporating self-assessments into the curriculum that allows for feedback to be provided to the students.
authors.affiliation: Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Morgantown, WV, USA.
authors.forename: Lindsay R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Kalata
authors.forename: Marie A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Abate
mesh_terms: D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005178:Faculty; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008611:Mentors; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012580:Schools, Pharmacy; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013339:Students, Pharmacy / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: assessment; mentor; portfolio; professional development; self-assessment