Background: Programmatic assessment has been proposed as the way forward for competency-based assessment, yet there is a dearth of literature describing the implementation and evaluation of programmatic assessment approaches.
Objective: To evaluate the implementation of a programmatic assessment and explore its ability to support students and assessors.
Design: A qualitative evaluation of programmatic assessment was employed.
Participants/setting: Interviews with graduates (n = 8) and preceptors (n = 12) together with focus groups with faculty assessors (n = 9) from the one Australian university explored experiences of the programmatic approach, role of assessment in learning, and defensibility of assessment decisions in determining competence.
Analysis performed: Data were analyzed into key themes using framework analysis.
Results: The programmatic assessment increased confidence in defensibility of assessment decisions, reduced emotional burden of assessment, increased value of assessment, and identified and remediated at-risk students earlier when philosophical and practice shifts in approaches to assessment were embraced.
Conclusions: Programmatic assessment supports a holistic approach to competency development and assessment and has multiple benefits for learners and assessors.
Keywords: Education; Evaluation of learning; Programmatic assessment; Work-based assessment.
Copyright © 2021 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.