Self-evaluation and peer-feedback of medical students' communication skills using a web-based video annotation system. Exploring content and specificity.

OBJECTIVE: Self-evaluation and peer-feedback are important strategies within the reflective practice paradigm for the development and maintenance of professional competencies like medical communication. Characteristics of the self-evaluation and peer-feedback annotations of medical students' video recorded communication skills were analyzed.

METHOD: Twenty-five year 4 medical students recorded history-taking consultations with a simulated patient, uploaded the video to a web-based platform, marked and annotated positive and negative events. Peers reviewed the video and self-evaluations and provided feedback. Analyzed were the number of marked positive and negative annotations and the amount of text entered. Topics and specificity of the annotations were coded and analyzed qualitatively.

RESULTS: Students annotated on average more negative than positive events. Additional peer-feedback was more often positive. Topics most often related to structuring the consultation. Students were most critical about their biomedical topics. Negative annotations were more specific than positive annotations. Self-evaluations were more specific than peer-feedback and both show a significant correlation. Four response patterns were detected that negatively bias specificity assessment ratings.

CONCLUSION: Teaching students to be more specific in their self-evaluations may be effective for receiving more specific peer-feedback.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Videofragmentrating is a convenient tool to implement reflective practice activities like self-evaluation and peer-feedback to the classroom in the teaching of clinical skills.