A Brief History

EvalCGI is an online evaluation system developed by the Office of Medical Informatics at the University of Florida. It has been in continuous use since 1995. Since that time it has processed more than a million course, clerkship, faculty, and peer evaluations. In 1997 evalCGI allowed the Harrell Assessment Center to move to paperless performance based exams. In 1999 the system was extended to include traditional high stakes testing. In 2000 the College of Medicine opened a 75 station Testing Center to facilitate computer-based examinations (see photo). EvalCGI is now part of an evaluation software suite (EvalSuite) that includes account management, item analysis, and report generation. For more information contact:

Richard Rathe, MD
Director of Medical Informatics
rrathe@ufl.edu

Features

• Simple, easy to use interface
• Evaluation forms created dynamically from simple markup (evaluation text "ETX") files
• Optional user authentication
• Generic forms with subject selection via popup menus
• Multi-tiered security and validity checking
• Evaluation data compatible with popular spreadsheets and statistical packages
• Submission summary available on demand
• Written in the Perl programming language. 100% Web-based, will run on most servers.

Acknowledgements

Franklin Lin (then a student, now an MD!) wrote the first version as a summer research project. Version 3.0 was a complete rewrite by Dr. Rathe and served as the basis for the current program.

Gene Cornwall (lab manager) and Cynthia Karle (program manager) have provided continuous feedback on the design and function of the program over many years.

Susan Wright (programmer and activist) is the primary author of Evalsuite and works closely on all aspects of the program's design.

Documentation

Overview

http://evalsuite.medinfo.ufl.edu/docs/evalcgi/overview.html

Directories

http://evalsuite.medinfo.ufl.edu/docs/evalcgi/dirs.html

Forms (ETX Format)

http://evalsuite.medinfo.ufl.edu/docs/evalcgi/forms.html

Form Customization Flags

http://evalsuite.medinfo.ufl.edu/docs/evalcgi/flags.html

Security

http://evalsuite.medinfo.ufl.edu/docs/evalcgi/security.html

Utilities

http://evalsuite.medinfo.ufl.edu/docs/evalcgi/utils.html

Assessment Portfolios - NEW!

http://evalsuite.medinfo.ufl.edu/docs/evalcgi/portfolio/

High Stakes Testing

EvalCGI version 5 no longer supports high stakes exams directly. The new eXtensible Assessment Machine (XAM) now provides these services.
http://evalsuite.medinfo.ufl.edu/docs/xam/

Instructor's Toolkit

Use the Instructor's Toolkit for forms management, item analysis, and reports.
http://evalsuite.medinfo.ufl.edu/docs/toolkit/

EvalSuite Home Page

http://evalsuite.medinfo.ufl.edu/