This is totally awesome for the novice!!! Couple of questions. 1) you mentioned benchmarks data for effect size in CME-can you direct me to those resources? 2) At the Alliance conference this year, a participant in one of the sessions mentioned “reserach studies” showing that there is not much difference with matched vs. unmatched data in the field of CME. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Are you aware of any of these studies and if so, can you direct me? Ideally it would be better to have matched data but not very practical. I can always do my own search for these resources but thought if you knew, would save me a bit of time. Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!
Sue: Here is a response from Jason Olivieri, the presenter of this session:
1) The best benchmarks for effect size in CME are those you would establish through the repeated assessment of your own activities. In the interim, there are some benchmarks in the literature (the first for eLearning the second for live activities):
Cook DA, Levinson AJ, Garside S, Dupras DM, Erwin PJ, Montori VM. Internet-based learning in the health professions: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2008;399:1181-1196.
Mansouri M, Lockyer J. A meta-analysis of continuing medical education effectiveness. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2007;27:6-15.
2) Matched analysis is always better. The question is: can you get away with using unmatched data? Based on this ONE article, maybe you can:
Heintz AA, Fagerlie SR. Competence assessments: to pair or not to pair, that is the question. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2015;35:S31-2.
CMEPALOOZA 
This is totally awesome for the novice!!! Couple of questions. 1) you mentioned benchmarks data for effect size in CME-can you direct me to those resources? 2) At the Alliance conference this year, a participant in one of the sessions mentioned “reserach studies” showing that there is not much difference with matched vs. unmatched data in the field of CME. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Are you aware of any of these studies and if so, can you direct me? Ideally it would be better to have matched data but not very practical. I can always do my own search for these resources but thought if you knew, would save me a bit of time. Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!
Sue: Here is a response from Jason Olivieri, the presenter of this session:
1) The best benchmarks for effect size in CME are those you would establish through the repeated assessment of your own activities. In the interim, there are some benchmarks in the literature (the first for eLearning the second for live activities):
Cook DA, Levinson AJ, Garside S, Dupras DM, Erwin PJ, Montori VM. Internet-based learning in the health professions: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2008;399:1181-1196.
Mansouri M, Lockyer J. A meta-analysis of continuing medical education effectiveness. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2007;27:6-15.
2) Matched analysis is always better. The question is: can you get away with using unmatched data? Based on this ONE article, maybe you can:
Heintz AA, Fagerlie SR. Competence assessments: to pair or not to pair, that is the question. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2015;35:S31-2.
Thank you ssssssssssssssssssoooooooooo much for your response. 🙂