2017 Volume 33 Issue 2 Pages 65-73
Abstract Faculty members of dental colleges have recently tried to improve the technical education and have strived to enhance their clinical clerkship systems. The Faculty of Dentistry, Niigata University, continues to administer the traditional and characteristic clinical clerkship. However, the aim of the current study was to establish an evaluation system for directly acquiring competent clinical skills, with proper utilization of knowledge and techniques at each clinical site. Verification of the learning process or the experience of the students and the instructions received by them were considered as other aims. Therefore, the development of a regulation system to assess the clinical skills and objective evaluation of the achievement level of each student were expected.
A portfolio is known to be a useful formative evaluation tool, and it can chronologically record the cumulative learning process. Therefore, a web-based e-portfolio system including an assessment rubric for students and instructors was created and applied to the clinical clerkship. The students and instructors who attended sessions on the clinical clerkship could understand the system without any confusion. The general clinical skill evaluation level that was assessed and marked on the system by the instructors tended to gradually increase with the progress of the clinical clerkship term, and it was suggested that the clinical skills of the students improved with their own clinical experiences. The web-based e-portfolio system on the clinical clerkship was considered to be a meaningful tool for reviewing the performance of students and facilitating effective training by the instructors.
