Volunteer with OEBC

OEBC needs volunteers!

Optometrists in Canada perform many roles with OEBC including serving on OEBC’s board of directors and helping to develop and administer the exam.

OEBC has rolled out its online volunteer portal! The portal securely maintains the volunteer’s profile, contact information, areas of interest and agreement. It also allows volunteers to view and register for any OEBC events they would like to participate in. 

To sign-up, please email OEBC at exams@oebc.ca to request the portal link — then complete forms and acknowledgements — and you will be ready to participate!

 

OEBC’s Members, the optometric regulators, recognize OEBC volunteer activities as a valuable professional educational experience.

When participating in exam development and administration events, volunteers receive a “CE letter” from OEBC.  The letter will include:

  • participant (volunteer) name
  • date of the event
  • the “actual hours” based on documented volunteer time at the event
  • the “credit hours” for that activity (based on the accepted “equivalence factor” for the event)

 

For example,

  • case writing (80% equivalence factor) — a writer who participates in a 16-hour writing review workshop will receive a letter documenting 16 total hours and 12.8 (rounded to 13) credit hours
  • exam assessor (40% equivalence factor) — an examiner who participates in a 23-hour exam weekend (training and exam) will receive a letter documenting 23 total hours and 9 credit hours

As an OEBC exam volunteer, you are an optometrist who: 

  • has been in practice three or more years and currently practicing full or part-time;
  • is registered in good standing with a provincial optometry regulatory body in Canada;
  • meets OEBC’s conflict of interest guidelines;
  • will give your impartial judgement and sound professional knowledge to contribute to a fair and valid OEBC exam; and
  • works well independently and on teams where the discourse is constructive, inclusive and respectful

OSCE & Written Exam Case/Item Writer

A Question Writer is a volunteer role responsible for the delivery of a required number of cases annually. They are responsible for developing multiple choice items /cases (stations) for the written exam and OSCE based on their optometry knowledge, the exam blueprint and the OEBC Writer’s Guide. Question Writers will develop rationales for the correct and incorrect options for each case (non-interactive stations) and finding appropriate references.

Question Validation (Standard Setting)

In a workshop setting, a standard setter will help establish “cut scores” or the Minimum Performance Level (MPL) for exam questions that have been written, reviewed and edited by groups of skilled practitioners.  They identify each particular question’s relevance to practice and level of difficulty in order to determine its “cut score”, otherwise known as the MPL. 

OSCE Examiner

At the OSCE, each interactive station has an examiner who marks a candidate’s performance against a standardized scoresheet. There are about 40 examiners at each administration. Examiners are likely to be involved in three sessions and assessing over 40 candidates during a day. Training is provided in advance of the administration.

Results Reporting

An Incident Report Review call is held immediately following the examination to address any incident reports that may have a global impact which could result in revisions to scoring for all candidates. Any necessary revisions are incorporated into scoring prior to entering candidate data. Following a data analysis of all items and stations, an OSCE review call is held to discuss item performance data of items falling outside psychometric requirements. After a review of each item under consideration, the members of the OSCE review call may elect to delete the item from scoring, accept multiple responses to an item, or keep the item in scoring unchanged without further action.

Study Guide Editor

As the profession evolves with the times, so will our exam to be able to remain current. Furthermore, this requires volunteer optometrists to review and revise the OEBC Exam Study Guide to ensure it is also up to date and valid.