Elsevier announces commercial launch of new medical ExamPrep tool for UK students

Mar 5 2015

Using adaptive learning technology, Elsevier’s ExamPrep pre-tests students to customise the study experience and identify topics that need more focus

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, has announced the commercial launch in the UK of its new medical exam preparation and simulation tool, ExamPrep.

In collaboration with Learning Objects, Inc., a leader in social software for learning, ExamPrep uses the latest adaptive technology to pre-test learners to formulate individual benchmarks. ExamPrep then presents questions and remediation content from Elsevier’s most trusted sources – including Kumar & Clark’s Cases in Clinical Medicine, Medical Sciences, and Gray’s Anatomy for Students – based on their progress and performance. Students can also create their own learning plan, actively involving and engaging them in their own performance and development, as it moves them through their revision to achieve exam success.

“It makes the exam preparation experience more efficient and effective,” said Rachel Armitage, e-Education Director, EMEA-LA, Elsevier Clinical Solutions. “Instead of students reviewing the same material over and over, ExamPrep customises the study experience and identifies topics students need to focus on to achieve their learning outcomes.”

At an institutional level ExamPrep allows faculty to create assignments from an extensive bank of questions or create questions with an author questioning tool. ExamPrep also provides analytics that enables faculty to monitor students’ progress, assess exam readiness, identify topics that require further review and potentially adjust their teaching to deliver improved learning outcomes. ExamPrep is available in the UK and will roll out in EMEA-LA later this year.

“Faculty are under increasing pressure to provide personalised learning to all students. That’s not always possible, given large class sizes and time available,” Armitage said. “ExamPrep helps to alleviate this demand as its performance dashboards include a robust set of metrics where faculty can see how their students are doing in mastering key concepts and intervene where necessary.”

Incorporating Learning Objects’ Difference Engine, Elsevier built ExamPrep on an adaptive assessment algorithm that takes into account learner mastery and established learning science.

“Medical education is a lifelong continuum of learning that starts at medical school,” Armitage said. “ExamPrep incorporates modern learning theories, from the forgetting curve and spaced repetition to item response theory, to maximise the effectiveness of the learning experience and improve student performance.”

Available offline and device agnostic, ExamPrep is just one of the many learning tools from Elsevier that supports the learning of tomorrow’s doctors and healthcare professionals.