Australian Medical Assessment Collaboration (AMAC)

AMAC Aims and Outcomes

AMAC began in late 2010 and was funded from 2011 to mid-2012 by a grant from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC). For 2013 to early 2014, AMAC is funded by the Office for Learning and Teaching. Through the initial ALTC grant, a framework for developing a generalisable assessment of the learning outcomes for medical students was established. In addition, piloting of an assessment was undertaken among a number of medical schools.

AMAC aims to adopt a ‘structured bottom-up approach’ to building a multi-institutional collaborative assessment for the evaluation of learning outcomes. It is focussed on establishing this in the field of medical education, although the team sees that the general principles applied in AMAC are transferable across a range of disciplines in higher education.

Newly developed assessment through AMAC does not replace existing work undertaken by universities or other assessment collaborations, nor is the intention of AMAC to produce a national exam for licensing purposes. Instead, AMAC intends to add an important additional layer of support and resources to the tools that universities are equipped with for determining quality of students and programs.

Under the initial ALTC-funded project, a range of outcomes have been achieved. From mid-2012 onwards, the number of AMAC partners has expanded and the project has moved from an initial proof of concept, to a proof of sustainability phase. Funding for this phase has been secured from the OLT.

The initial ALTC grant for this project covered the establishment of AMAC and ran from early 2011 to mid 2012. At the end of this initial phase of AMAC key outcomes include:

Development of an AMAC Assessment Framework;
Engagement with all medical schools in Australia and New Zealand, and with key medical education stakeholders (nationally and internationally) through two engagement forums;
Participation of nine medical schools in provision of draft items for the AMAC Assessment;
Development of 120 final assessment items, verified and validated by clinicians;
Participation of seven medical schools in pilot testing of the AMAC Assessment, involving more than 500 final year medical students;
Exploration of pilot outcomes through psychometric analyses and examination of survey results from participating students and institutions;
Development and distribution of institution-level and student-level benchmark reporting from the piloting of the AMAC Assessment;
Enhancing and expanding discussion relation to common assessment in medical education, including helping to instigate the formation of a specific committee devoted to this in the medical dean’s peak body; and
The engagement with additional partner medical schools in the collaboration and planning for future sustainability of AMAC.

The development of AMAC is not in the interest of the system, students, or society if it occurs outside of the scope and control of Australia’s medical schools. Therefore, the emphasis of AMAC is on collaboration. Engaging teaching staff and building their capacity to develop high quality assessments is an integral part of the project. This capacity building is achieved through workshops relating to the development and implementation of the assessment and a widely distributed report covering the processes and outcomes of this project, and the ongoing existence of AMAC.

A project report for the Office for Learning and Teaching (formerly ALTC) which details the outcomes and processes of the initial development of AMAC through the funding provided by this body between early 2011 and mid 2012 is available below.

Download the AMAC Project Report here:

‘The Australian Medical Assessment Collaboration: developing the foundations for a national assessment of medical student learning outcomes’