The overall goal of this project is the establishment of a common procedure for valid longitudinal assessment of knowledge, skills and competences (progress testing) within European Veterinary Schools with reference to subjects defined in EU Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications (Directive 2013/55/EU) and the Day One Competences and Underpinning Knowledge and Understanding required by European Association of Veterinary Establishment (EAEVE; see ESEVT Standard Operational Procedures; https://www.eaeve.org/esevt/sop.html) and approved by the Federation of Veterinarians in European (FVE).

Progress testing offers both valid longitudinal formative assessment of the individual students' cognitive skills growth within the tested subjects areas as well as a tool for educators to monitor potential educational gaps and mismatches within the curriculum in relation to the basic veterinary learning outcomes defined by EAEVE. Evidence from European and North American Medical Schools show that periodic formative assessments enhance learning by providing objective evidence based cumulative feedback to students, and/or reduce stress-related reduction in students learning.

In this project, six renowned veterinary institutions from Denmark (School of Veterinary and Animal Science, University of Copenhagen), Norway (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences), Finland (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki), Germany (University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover), Sweden (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) and the Netherlands (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht) will in cooperation with EAEVE establish a long-desired collaboration to implement a common procedure for valid longitudinal assessment of knowledge, cognitive skills and competences in their curricula. The main shared goals are to reduce skills gaps at three levels within veterinary programs of participating partners : (i) at the personal student level, (ii) the curricular level and (iii) between curricula of the participating veterinary establishments.

During this project the applicants, in close collaboration with teachers from the participating institutions, will: (i) establish a common quality assurance system for validation and blueprinting of test items for formative progress testing covering the subjects areas defined in Directive 2013/55/EU and in compliance with the EAEVE competence and assessment

standards; (ii) develop a large shared test item repository for formative progress testing containing psychometrically validated questions (e.g. MCQ, Cloze, Matrix items) in accordance with the established QA-system; and (iii) implement a common assessment procedure in their curricula using a commercially available progress test software system.

Teachers will be continuously trained in constructing valid test items and will be familiarized with psychometric data analysis for validation purposes using an on-line mini-MOOC, which will be developed as part of this project. In addition, hands-on training will be provided through two planned staff training events in 2020 and 2021 of three days each. Students will be informed about progress testing and it's use in higher health educations through a You-Tube based instruction movie, which will developed within the beginning of the project.

For proper dissemination of the outcomes of this project, we aim to publish our experiences and results in three scientific papers in veterinary/medical educational journals aimed at veterinary and other professional health science educators. In addition, a satellite symposium will be organized in conjunction with the EAEVE 2023 General Assembly to propagate this initiative and to recruit more veterinary institutions into the consortium.

The outputs of the project will be created through 6 project work packages: (1) Project organization, management and Quality assurance; (2) Production of learning and information materials; (3) Writing of test items; (4) Validation of test items for formative linear and adaptive progress testing; (5) Development of the common progress testing system; and (6) Dissemination of results.

After completion of the project, it is expected that the shared databank will be expanded under continuing supervision of the quality assurance board chaired by EAEVE. At least, once a year, i.e. during the general assembly of the EAEVE, partners will meet and discuss diverse topics regarding item data banking and progress testing. It is expected that the EAEVE as well as the participating institutions will take over the funding to sustain this initiative and that more EAEVE accredited veterinary institutions will join this consortium. This will ultimately lead to standardization of both assessment procedures as well as an optimal alignment of veterinary curricula to the EU directive under supervision of the EAEVE.