Kaitlyn found that the self-evaluation and peer evaluation options in SimCapture for Skills were key to helping students grow.

"A crucial piece...is self and peer evaluation during those practice opportunities," she says. "There’s a ton of literature out there [indicating] that there’s a lot of power in self-reflection, but also peer evaluation in order to improve."

SimCapture for Skills yielded student performance data that allowed Kaitlyn and the faculty to:

• Organize the data in one place.
  Previously, they kept data in numerous places – making it difficult to compile.
• Track students' progression across the curriculum.
  "That’s key in CBE," she says. "You need to see how much students are practicing and how their practice and skill levels change throughout those practice exposures."
• Pinpoint areas where students were struggling.
  Because the data provided performance insights at the course and cohort levels, Kaitlyn and the faculty could quickly identify common issues. Then, they could look at the didactic data to determine if it needed adjusting.

Using checklists in SimCapture for Skills allowed Kaitlyn and the faculty to increase transparency for the students, helping them to know exactly what they needed to do.

"[Something] that has become really evident to us is that transparent assessment in an accelerated program is key," she notes. The rigorous full-time program can be challenging for students because of the nature of its pace. "One way we can [help them succeed] is to be really transparent in what we want and what we expect of them."

"Having transparent assessments is an evidence-based teaching strategy," she adds. "So SimCapture helps us with that. We can tell students, 'Here’s the checklist you’re practicing with. It’s the same checklist that we're going to evaluate you within your summative demonstration.'"

Using checklists increased the level of uniformity because all students were being objectively measured based on the same checklists. This also helped maintain objectivity with the faculty. The approach to student evaluations can vary based on a number of factors. The checklists include hint text to help provide an objective measurement for faculty to consider when completing student evaluations.

The ability for students to perform self or peer evaluations helped free up some much-needed time for faculty. 

"When peer evaluation or even self-evaluation is done correctly, the students are really getting a baseline of how competent they are in performing the competency or skill," she explains. "When that process is occurring, they're constantly refining their skill performance. And then when they think that they're ready to demonstrate it, they can then go to the instructor." At that point, the instructor could provide more specific, refined feedback.

"That's really how it can lessen the workload of faculty – because students are leaning on each other to provide evaluation," she points out. "The instructor can spend more time checking in individually as they're practicing amongst each other, but then also are giving very detailed feedback when the student is ready to demonstrate – vs. giving them a ton of feedback because they haven’t practiced the skill."