Online support for medicine dosage calculations

This article reports findings from a small project run within the Robert Gordon University that aims to provide nursing students with online support for medicine dosage calculations through formative assessment. The project motivation is discussed together with an evaluation of a subset of data from 177 student participants. This evaluation focuses on the 20 or so students who have engaged most with the project, and assesses the extent to which these students have been able to transfer benefits derived from formative assessment of their skills to summative assessment. Evidence is presented that shows: students who do well formatively do not seek individual tuition, those who truly engage with the formative online assessment subsequently pass their summative assessment, students agree or strongly agree that the formative assessment helped them pass their summative assessment and students making multiple attempts do not simply copy the correct answers given in feedback, but retry the assessment.