This is an opportunity to extend MBChB’s use of Practique beyond written exams and into OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) for the next academic year 2018-19. Utilising the same team who deployed Practique seamlessly into MBChB (over 80 written exams executed already), should ensure that the continued development of support for our student body and the MBChB assessment team, academics and administrative functions continues.

The activities in this project will include:

• Extend deployment of  Practique from FRY-IT - cloud based servers hosted on Amazon Web Servers - to execute all OSCE exams plus the existing written paper based assessments throughout MBChB
• Provision of training for MBChB users, examiners and IS support staff (where appropriate)
• Configuration and setup of UoE platforms that will support running the assessments
• Support a training session for the project core team on July 10, 2018
• Develop a pilot to enable MBChB examiners to assess Practique prior to exams
• Communication to all stakeholders
• Exam day preparation and support
• Support MBChB change - not just the technical elements surrounding the introduction of a new exam application, but the structural, process and people based change that will emerge alongside the technical delivery
• Progress the Practique User Group - these colleagues will work with FRY-IT to shape future releases, MBChB requirements and review all change emerging across the platform,   this group meet twice a year consisting of representatives from all of the supplier clients within the UK, such as Imperial, Leeds, Brighton etc
  • Support developing requirements for improved reporting (commenced) which is priority number 1 for UoE at the PUG
• Maintain the relationship for the project with the supplier - currently monthly meetings with assessment team alongside adhoc as required
• Develop a strategy and planning approach with the assessment team to consider the next three years use of Practique
• Submission to and presentation for UoE learning and teaching conference on June 20 https://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/learning-teaching/cpd/workshops/learning-teaching-conference
• Continued support of all testing for future releases (V 5.4 released in mid June) with some specific UoE requirements contained within
• Assist MBChB in updating the current blueprint, particularly within the definition of skills
• In parallel the written exams will be introducing a new question type - Very Short Answer Question (VSAQ)
  • Support the assessment team in constructing, testing and then creating the new guidelines for module organisers to create new questions
• Continue developing engagement within the Medical School to review requirements surrounding their use of a variety of assessment tools
  • Commenced presentation and response to Clinical Brain Science who currently use QMP
  • Planned meeting with the Teaching Organisation who currently use elements of Speedwell
• Manage contract updates with Legal Services, Procurement and suppliers:-
  • Existing Fry-IT contract will require amending along with finance
  • Existing Speedwell contract for scanners to process marks
• Decommission scanners and remove support:-
  • Remove physical servers once confirmed that they are not used by anyone else
  • Review and potentially remove MVM IS Support from a need to provide support for this function

This project follows these previous completed projects:- MVM107, MVM119 and MVM118.

https://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/unpublished/project/mvm118/risks/7 This risk from MVM118 articulates the issue of MBChB executing the type of structural changes that are required, but which the introduction of Practique has accelerated. I have closed it as part of that project, acknowledging that MBChB have made huge strides in this space. However, challenges do remain which the team are aware of, but note that it's mainly out of the power of this project to influence.

Further significant changes are likely to be 'anthropological rather than technological’, so we may introduce technological change, but we need humans to execute it, hopefully, we will determine what we want the technology to do, not the other way round!