Do-it-Yourself Exams: 

My Context:
Medical students have difficulty learning how to answer case-based USMLE board-style questions. Providing practice questions is helpful, but students may still have difficulty identifying ways in which “test-worthy” material can be assessed within the context of a USMLE/board-style, case-based question. This can negatively impact their study strategy and lead to delays in their ability to understand and apply course content. 

My Development Idea:
I developed an activity, “DIY Exam,” in which each student first identifies an individual learning need related to the information covered in a content block, researches information needed to satisfy that learning need, then communicates to the rest of the class by writing this information in the format of a case-based, USMLE-style exam question. The student posts their question in an online learning community, then browses through questions other students have posted and chooses one to answer, which also target one of their identified learning needs. The student looks up information needed to answer the question, then writes a response via a comment on the post. The response includes the answer the student thinks is correct, the reason why it is correct, and a rationale for why each of the other choices is incorrect. 

My Problem that I Have Insights Upon:
Since its inception, this activity has utilized different methods by which students share their DIY Exam questions: in-person meetings of groups of 8 - 10 students, online document sharing (e.g., Google Drive), and the online learning community platform, Packback. Although an improvement in exam scores was observed following implementation of the activity, some students did not respond favorably to it. Increased quality of participation in the online learning community was noted with the onset of the pandemic, and it is the author’s belief that this forum provides an important source of community during this time in which in-person communications are limited. "