Web-based self-assessments in pathology with Questionmark Perception

Formative assessment with appropriate feedback is an effective method of promoting learning. Software tools are now available to facilitate the delivery of formative self-assessments via the World Wide Web. For the past 5 years, we have offered on-line formative self-assessments in pathology to undergraduate medical students. These assessments, which have been authored using Question-mark Perception, have proved particularly popular and have received high ratings in course evaluation surveys. Furthermore, they appear to have been effective in promoting student learning, with evidence that students made a genuine attempt to answer the questions in the assessment and that they learnt from doing so. The potential of on-line formative self-assessments for postgraduate training and continuing education in pathology so far remains untapped.