Evaluation of marking of peer marking in oral presentation.

BACKGROUND: Peer marking is an important skill for students, helping them to understand the process of learning and assessment. This method is increasingly used in medical education, particularly in formative assessment. However, the use of peer marking in summative assessment is not widely adopted because many teachers are concerned about biased marking by students of their peers. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate whether marking of summative peer assessment can improve the reliability of peer marking. METHODS: In a retrospective analysis, the peer-marking results of a summative assessment of oral presentations of two cohorts of students were compared. One group of students was told that their peer marks would be assessed against a benchmark consisting of the average of examiner marks and that these scores together with the peer and examiner marks would form their final exam results. The other group of students were just informed that their final exam results would be determined based on the examiner and peer marks. RESULTS: Based on examiner marks, both groups of students performed similarly in their summative assessment, agreement between student markers was less consistent and more polar than the examiners. When compared with the examiners, students who were told that their peer marking would be scored were more generous markers (their average peer mark was 2.4 % points higher than the average examiner mark) while students who were not being scored on their marking were rather harsh markers (their average peer mark was 4.2 % points lower than the average examiner mark), with scoring of the top-performing students most affected. CONCLUSIONS: Marking of peer marking had a small effect on the marking conduct of students in summative assessment of oral presentation but possibly indicated a more balanced marking performance

Development of an in vitro model for studying the penetration of chemicals through compromised skin.

The conventional safety approach that includes dermal absorption of pharmaceutical or consumer products uses models that are based on intact skin. However, when products are intended for application to skin with a less effective barrier, such as in new-born infants, or in cases where the skin is mildly damaged or diseased, there are instances where absorption through compromised skin is also important. A tape stripping procedure was investigated using dermatomed pig skin to assess if an in vitro model could replicate the typical changes in barrier function observed in humans with compromised skin. The relationship between Trans-Epidermal Water Loss (TEWL), Electrical Resistance (ER) and Tritiated Water Flux(TWF), markers of skin barrier function in OECD 428 studies was investigated. There was a step-wise reduction in ER from normal (control) skin following 5, 10, 15 or 20 tape strips. This was mirrored by increases in both TWF and TEWL. An in vitro experimental protocol using 5 tape strips, ER and dermatomed pig skin provided a rapid, robust and reproducible approach equivalent to the 3–4-fold increases in TEWL observed clinically in compromised skin