State of portfolios in undergraduate medical education across the United States

Zareen Zaidi, MDAssociate Professor

Director of Longitudinal PortfoliosDivision of General Internal Medicine

Department of MedicineUniversity of Florida, Gainesville

zareen.zaidi@medicine.ufl.edu

Overview

We sought to investigate:

The number of medical schools utilizing portfolios The format of portfolios (paper-based or e-Portfolios) Information technology innovations Purpose of portfolios (formative or summative

evaluation) Its ability to engage faculty and students

Methods

A twenty one-question structured survey of closed and open-ended questions regarding portfolios was sent using Qualtrics to 141 medical school deans

Data was collected from 10/1/14 through 03/31/15

Response rateOf the 141 medical school deans that were emailed, 90 (63%) responded to the survey

Survey Questions

Questions 1-5 : General demographic information Questions 6-14 : Features of the portfolio Question 15-18: Pertaining to satisfaction and

engagement Questions 19-21: Open-ended about success factors

& barriers

What is the length of your undergraduate program?

Does your institution utilize medical student portfolios for formative and/or summative assessment of your students?

What IT platform is your institution using for medical student portfolios (i.e., Black Board, Sakaii, Home Grown)?

The most frequently reported IT platform for portfolios was Homegrown, followed by Blackboard, Sakaii or

Wordpress

How would you best describe the assessment methodology of the medical student portfolios used at your institution?

Of the following, how would you best describe the medical student portfolios used at your institution?

Are the following included in the medical student portfolios used at your institution?

Would you describe the medical student portfolios used at your institution to be geared towards assessing students' attainment of competencies?

The medical student portfolios used at your institution are primarily:

Regarding the IT aspect of medical student portfolios, the medical student portfolios at your institution are able to:

Are the medical student portfolios used at your institution able to visually track student progress over time, similar to the illustration below (i.e. longitudinally displays in graphic form each student’s progress in a particular competency domain)?

Do you believe the medical student portfolios used at your institution actively engage your students in the learning process?

Do you believe the medical student portfolios used at your institution actively engage your faculty in the learning process?

Do you believe the medical student portfolios used at your institution give students better understanding of learning objectives and competencies?

Do you think that the medical student portfolios used at your institution have room for improvement?

What do you believe to be the key success factors for medical student portfolios at your institution?

Faculty mentorship Faculty development Laying down clear objectives /blueprint

What do you believe to be the key barriers for medical student portfolios at your institution?

Lack of faculty development Poor IT support, ‘bulky technology’ Lack of integration of technology with course

objectives Time need to develop the needed technology and

associated costs ‘Meta-reflection’ required ‘culture change’ as

students often do not see the benefit

Conclusion While there is significant variation in the purpose and

structure of portfolios in the medical schools surveyed, most schools using portfolios report a high level of engagement with students and faculty

Development of guidelines or ‘best practices’ may help improve the satisfaction of all portfolio stakeholders

Thank You !Go Gators