COMING SOON: Registration will open in early 2027.
This course introduces medical educators to the foundational concepts, theories, and practical applications of validity in assessment. Through a progressive learning experience, participants will build an understanding of key validity concepts, including validity arguments, validity inferences, and validity evidence, and explore their role in developing trustworthy and defensible assessments. Learners will then apply these principles by constructing validity arguments for medical education assessments and examining how validity intersects with reliability and fairness. The course culminates in the evaluation of real-world assessments, equipping educators with the skills to identify threats to validity, interpret assessment evidence, and select appropriate assessment approaches for their educational goals. By the end of the course, learners will be prepared to design, evaluate, and use assessments that support meaningful and informed decisions about learner performance.
Learn More About Your Course Instructor
Monica M. Cuddy, Ph.D., is a Lead Measurement Scientist in the Office of Research Strategy at NBME. She has more than 25 years of experience in educational measurement and assessment, serving in a variety of operational and research roles throughout her tenure at NBME. Her expertise includes test validity, fairness in testing, healthcare team assessment, clinical reasoning assessment, and professional regulation. Dr. Cuddy's research has focused on gathering and evaluating validity evidence for assessment score interpretations and uses, as well as advancing the development of teamwork assessments in graduate medical education. She has published and presented her work nationally and internationally and has served in leadership roles within both NBME and the American Educational Research Association.
Learning Goals
- Develop an understanding of the foundational concepts of validity in assessment, including validity arguments, validity inferences, and validity evidence, and their role in supporting meaningful, defensible assessment interpretations and decisions.
- Apply validity concepts to analyze a medical education assessment and construct a validity argument that supports its intended interpretation and use.
- Develop an understanding of validity, reliability, and fairness, including how these concepts relate to one another and how different models of fairness inform assessment design, interpretation, and use.
- Apply principles of validity, reliability, and fairness to critically evaluate a medical education assessment, identify gaps in its validity argument, and develop strategies to address those gaps.
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