Assessment: Student’s perspectives: A cross-sectional and questionnaire-based study

Background: Assessment is the most important factor which affect student’s learning behavior. It has been seen that the things which are not assessed have not been read by the students usually. Mainly two types of assessments are there: (1) Summative assessment, which is taken to assign grades to the students and (2) formative assessment, it is considered more important than summative assessment, because feedback to the learner is given after this. Moreover, it is the feedback which stimulates further improvement in learners. Now-a-days the students do not take assessments seriously because their unclear perception regarding the same. Hence, the present questionnaire-based study has been conducted on 2nd-year undergraduate students for obtaining their views regarding assessment and depending on their answers, they will be guided to utilize it in constructive way for their betterment. Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the student’s perspectives toward assessment. Materials and Methods: This questionnaire-based and cross sectional study has been conducted on 100 2nd-year undergraduate students after taking informed consent from them. Questionnaire in Google forms has been sent to their emails after explaining the purpose of the study. Results obtained have been analyzed and presented in counts and percentages. The Institutional Ethics Committee approval has been taken before commencement of the study. Results: Students were aware about different assessments, but the purpose of the same was not clear to them. Around 63 (74.1%) students were in favor of frequent assessment, that is, they want assessment in every 1–3 months interval. The types of questions for examinations, most of them preferred multiple choice questions and short answer type of questions. Conclusion: The attitude of most of the students toward assessment system was found positive but they need guidance regarding proper use of it. There is immense need to put more effort to aware the students toward this.

Effectiveness of implementation of formative assessments as a part of competency-based medical education on summative assessment: A pilot study

Background: Assessment is an essential part of each and every education, which represents the learning of a student. If the assessments are performed regularly, it inspires active study habits and inevitably enhance learning. Aim and Objectives: Formative assessments, which are performed regularly, increase the effectiveness of the learning. Hence, we aimed to observe the effectiveness of spaced formative assessments on the performance of students in summative assessments. Materials and Methods: We selected 250 first-year medical students from the 21 to 22 batch. The students were categorized into three groups on the basis of formative assessment performance. Group I did not appear in the formative assessment, Group II scored <50% in the formative assessment, and Group III scored more than 50% in the formative assessment. Multiple comparisons of scores of summative assessments between different groups were done using ANOVA. Scores of formative assessments and summative assessment were correlated using Pearson correlation. Results: We got a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) in mean summative assessment scores in different groups. Again, the analysis showed formative assessments had a significant (P < 0.05) relationship with summative assessment performance. Conclusion: The performance of formative assessments is predictive of summative examination scores. Academically poor medical students will be benefited from formative assessments.

A new holistic assessment system and its impacts on student performance in regional anatomy / Un nuevo sistema de evaluación holística y sus impactos en el rendimiento de los estudiantes en anatomía regional

Summative and formative assessments are two overlapping complementary ways of assessing student progress in regional anatomy teaching and learning. Our present study was designed to create a new holistic assessment system that embraces both summative and formative assessments, and evaluate its impacts on student performance of regional anatomy. A collection of five formative assessment tests were designed and introduced into the teaching process of regional anatomy, and their performances were combined with scores of the summative assessment taken at the end of the semester to form the holistic assessment. And an anonymous survey was conducted to gather student perceptions regarding the assessments. We found, compared to summative assessment scores, students' overall average points are higher by 4.67 points (P<0.05) and 9.23 points (P<0.01) when evaluated by the holistic and formative assessment; formative assessment scores are positively correlated to summative assessment scores, and the Pearson correlation is 0.624. Questionaire investigation showed 57.65 % of the students wishes to be assessed by the holistic assessmen, and 97.9 % of the students think that the holistic assessment can promote the frequency of student-teacher communication, which helps them form the right learning attitude and improve the performance. The results indicated that holistic assessment is a more reflective and practical approach of evaluating student performance in regional anatomy teaching, which can increase studentteacher communication and enhance the self-directed learning among students.

Las evaluaciones sumativas y formativas son dos formas complementarias superpuestas de evaluar el progreso de los estudiantes en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la anatomía regional. El presente estudio fue diseñado para crear un sistema nuevo de evaluación integral que abarque tanto las evaluaciones sumativas como las formativas, y evalúe sus impactos en el rendimiento de los estudiantes de la anatomía regional. Se diseñó e introdujo una colección de cinco pruebas de evaluación formativa en el proceso de enseñanza de la anatomía regional, y sus desempeños se combinaron con los puntajes de la evaluación sumativa tomada al final del semestre para formar la evaluación holística. Además, se realizó una encuesta anónima para recopilar las percepciones de los estudiantes con respecto a las evaluaciones. Encontramos que, en comparación con los puntajes de la evaluación sumativa, los puntos promedio generales de los estudiantes son más altos en 4,67 puntos (P <0,05) y 9,23 puntos (P <0,01) cuando se evalúan mediante la evaluación holística y formativa; los puntajes de las evaluaciones formativas se correlacionan positivamente con los puntajes de las evaluaciones sumativas, y la correlación de Pearson es 0,624. La investigación del cuestionario mostró que el 57,65 % de los estudiantes desea ser evaluado por los evaluadores holísticos, y el 97,9 % de los estudiantes piensa que la evaluación holística puede promover la frecuencia de la comunicación entre estudiantes y maestros, útil para formar una actitud correcta de aprendizaje y mejorar el rendimiento. Los resultados indicaron que la evaluación holística es un enfoque más reflexivo y práctico para evaluar el desempeño de los estudiantes en la enseñanza de anatomía regional, lo que puede aumentar la comunicación entre estudiantes y maestros y mejorar el aprendizaje autodirigido entre los estudiantes.

Assessment of Rubrics for Health Science Education at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Papua New Guinea

@#This study carried out at the University of Papua New Guinea investigates undergraduate medical imaging science (MIS) students’ perceptions of the usefulness of individualised feedback using a rubric. In the first semester of 2017, 15 fourth year students in the research proposal design course were assigned to an assessment rubric, which comprised a detailed description of how their work was to be graded. Students were instructed to submit an initial draft of their writing. Electronic feedback was then provided to support the revision process. The benefits of the rubric and feedback were evaluated at the end of the semester using a paper-based survey, which provided participating students with the opportunity to critically reflect on the learning experience. The majority (93.3%) of the students were satisfied that the feedback on their draft proposal assisted their understanding on research methodology concepts which informed their progress with respect to achieving the assessment learning outcomes. This study has demonstrated that the use of a rubric as a formative assessment tool has had a positive impact on students’ learning experience. Reflection on the results of this study will lead to further refinement of the existing rubric and the development of others.

Equivalence of entrustable professional activities and context-dependent item sets as summative assessments in undergraduate physical therapy programs

Background@#Summative assessment of student performance should provide information on achievement of program outcomes to support evaluation decisions. Alternative approaches to the traditional assessment systems like the written licensure examinations in Physical Therapy (PT) should be explored to ensure valid measurement of achievement of these terminal outcomes. @*Objective@#The study aimed at establishing equivalence of two summative assessments new to PT in measuring achievement of the PT outcomes: work-based assessment using Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) and knowledge-based assessment using Context-Dependent Item Sets (CDIS). @*Methodology@#Thirty-two newly graduated PT's underwent a one-week EPA assessment and took a 102-item CDIS test (based on 14 clinical vignettes). Qualitative data from blueprint review, group face-to-face interviews with participants and assessors, and field notes from observations, and quantitative data from EPA entrustment decisions and CDIS scores were utilized to ascertain their comparability in terms of Purpose, Administration, Quality and Decisions. This was used to determine the extent of equivalence of the two assessments. @*Results@#Review of both blueprints show alignment with PT outcomes, with integrative content motivating participants towards professional development. Administration were equally acceptable to users, though EPA had more practice opportunities with a longer assessment time. Entrustment decisions in EPA had a high inter-rater reliability, while CDIS had low reliability, with most items having poor discriminative power. Decisions of “pass” or “fail” had good concordance when high prevalence indices were considered. @*Conclusion@#There is high extent of equivalence in purpose of EPA and CDIS but are not equivalent in terms of administration. There is moderate equivalence in quality and decisions, with potential for increased concordance if improved quality of CDIS is attained.

Impact of introduction of Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise in formative assessment of undergraduate medical students in pediatrics

Background: Student's assessment is a systemic process of determining the extent to which the student has achieved the desired competency. Mini'Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) is an assessment tool applicable in broad range of settings. Very little data is available in Indian settings about Mini-CEX in undergraduate. This study has been undertaken to understand its role in formative assessment.Methods: In this interventional study 47 students and 7 faculty of pediatrics participated. Students were assessed for two encounters of Mini-CEX. Assessment was as per Mini-CEX rating form followed by feedback.Results: Mean score range for different competency of data gathering were 1.76 to 2.5 during first mini-CEX and 4.38 to 5.14 during second Mini-CEX. Difference was significant (Cohen's d >0.8). More than 90% of students felt that Mini-CEX is better way to assess clinical skills and would like to be assessed by Mini-CEX. One to one interaction was most important advantage felt about Mini-CEX. Though nearly all faculties felt that Mini-CEX is a better way for assessment half of them disagree to continue using it in future due to time constraints.Conclusions: In this study we found Impact of Mini-CEX in formative assessment is significant to improve clinical competency at undergraduate level. Improvement in Mini-CEX scores in consecutive encounter signifies its role even as Teaching Learning tool. Need to consider issues about its feasibility for Undergraduate level in settings with limited staff strength.

Comprehensive analysis of theory exam question papers of 2nd MBBS Pharmacology subject in Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka, India

Background: Assessment is the backbone of curriculum development and an important component of medical education. Written exams are frequently used in medical education and question papers are important instruments of assessment of medical education. The present study is summative question paper based analysis study where the content validity, level of cognition, cognitive domains, marks distribution and time weightage in theory question papers were analyzed.Methods: Retrospective analysis of II MBBS pharmacology question papers (n=18) of RGUHS, Bengaluru from the year 2010 to 2018 was done. The data was analyzed according to modified Blooms levels of taxonomy, cognitive domains, areas of importance and weightage given to different topics in Paper 1 and 2 in comparison to university syllabus and with regard to time allotted in university syllabus.Results: Analysis of question papers revealed that topics like GIT, respiratory system, uterine drugs, antiseptics and disinfectants, immunosuppressant were consistently underrepresented in question papers. Also, majority of questions (68.06%) did not have any verbs associated with Blooms level of taxonomy and hence did not meet criteria of standard question paper. Comparison of time allocation to weightage of topics in syllabus revealed no significant variations in percentage distribution.Conclusions: Assessment in medical education should not be used merely for classification, grading and certification rather it should become an instrument for promoting growth of knowledge. For this the university should frame standard blueprint for question paper setters and the question paper setters should follow those guidelines strictly and ensure that weightage given for different topics is maintained.

Recall Type vs Problem-based Tests for Formative Assessment in Undergraduate Medical Students

We studied two types of formative assessment: recall type, andproblem-based questions, with summative scores and previousgrades in 77 fourth-year medical students. We found that theformative scores did not correlate well with the summativescores, but were associated with the Grade point average in thepreclinical period

Exploration and reflection on theeffect of formative assessment in medical immunology teaching / 中华医学教育探索杂志

To achieve better results of the goal of training students' abilities in medical education,formative assessment has been implemented in medical immunology teaching for grade 2014 clinical medicine students.The evaluation indexes of medical immunology teaching have been constructed.Formative assessment has been implemented in classroom teaching,self-learning and group discussion,experimental teaching and network exams by following the principles of feedback,guidance and encouragement.Compared with summative assessment,formative assessment can dynamically reflect the learning progress of immunology and improve the learning effect.The deficiencies andpuzzlesin implementing the formative assessment have also been rethought and discussed deeply.

Applied exploration of formative evaluation in teaching of pediatric surgery / 中华医学教育探索杂志

To explore the promotion of formative assessment for teaching, the surgery teaching and research section of Institute of Pediatric has carried out formative assessment in theory teaching of pediatric medicine pediatric surgery for seven-year program for two consecutive years , and the teaching effects and assessment results have been made detalled analysis. The results shows that for-mative assessment combining with summative assessment can guide the students to adjust learning method in time and improve teaching methods effectively. Compared with the pure summative evalua-tion, formative assessment has enhanced the students' learning initiative, and improved their abilityof learning and solving problems. Formative assessment can comprehensively measure the overall quality of students.

The examination reform of Exploration of the combination of formative evaluation and sum-mative assessment in introduction to clinical medicine / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Examination reform was explored in Introduction to clinical medicine, and a new evaluation system was constructed which included the combination of formative assessment and sum-mative assessment as well as content system, operation system and monitoring system. The feedback mechanism of formative assessment was put into a full use to improve the teaching effect in this new evaluation system. At the same time, the method of summative assessment was substituted from the traditional closed-book exam to literature translation and presentation carried out by groups. The com-bination of summative assessment and formative assessment could evaluate the teaching efficiency of introduction to clinical medicine more comprehensively and objectively. In addition, it played an ac-tive role in improving students' comprehensive ability and their learning enthusiasm.

Study on application of formative assessment and summative assessment in sanitary microbiol-ogy teaching / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective To explore the new model of teaching assessment and evaluation of sanitary microbiology studied by students majoring in preventive medicine. Methods Combination of formative assessment and summative assessment was applied in the teaching for students in under-graduate preventive medicine class in Grade 2007-2010. To get better effect, method was improved constantly. Pearson correlation analysis was used to students' formative assessment and summative as-sessment, and comprehensive evaluation achievement(the first two added). Moreover, the effects were assessed by teachers' self-evaluation and their exchanging ideas with students. Results Ranging from 10.06 to 12.22, the standard deviations of four grades' summative assessment results were the biggest number, so the summative assessment was more effective. Students' formative assessment, summative assessment, and comprehensive assessment for this course were positively correlated(P<0.01) for suc-cessive four years. Teachers and students approved of the new mode. Conclusion The effective com-bination of formative assessment and summative assessment was helpful for student to develop and assess learning ability and overall qualities, and for teachers to improve teaching level.

Analysis of Chinese and foreign medical education evaluation model / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Assessment mode is a bottleneck in medical education reform nowadays.Although traditional assessment tools,such as written examination,are still widely used in medical education assessments,they have obvious limitations.With the enhancement of requirements in physicians' abilities,assessments on some basic abilities of physicians are still insufficient.The United States and Europe not only focus on the curriculum reform but also the development of appropriate assessment tools,therefore,some new assessment tools are invented.These assessment tools are applicable to the formative assessment and are student-centered,being able to promote the development of education and provide new options for medical education assessments.

Exploration of formative evaluation as the center examination in principles of medical equipment / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Principles of medical equipment course were explored of formative evaluation as the center examination,constructed an examination reform scheme as” One center (formative evaluation as the center),three systems (content system,operation system,monitoring system).” Made students to learn from the center of focus scores change to autonomous learning and culture analysis,solves the question ability and practical ability.At the same time,strengthen the teaching process of teaching and learning to communicate and exchange,Get the students learning feedback information to improve teaching and learning in time,Strengthen the students′ ability of autonomous learning and lifelong learning ability.

An OSCE for Summative Assessment after Clinical Clerkship: Experience in Ewha Medical School / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: To report the experience of OSCE performed as a summative assessment of the medical students in year 4 at Ewha Womans University. METHODS: Ninety-eight students took the twenty stations including 3 pairs of linked stations. We conducted duplicated OSCEs and each station runs 4 minutes 30 seconds. We analyzed the validity of stations, the reliability of duplicated OSCEs and the difference of scores according to the OSCE tools and categories. RESULTS: Mean OSCE score was 64.45+/-5.49 and Cronbach-alpha of total stations was 0.74. The scores between duplicated examinee groups and between duplicated evaluator groups were not different: the score of preceding examinee group was 63.3 and the later 65.7 (p=0.13), and the score of the first evaluator group was 64.6 and the second was 63.6 (p=0.16). However according to the individual analysis, 9 stations showed statistically discrepancies (p< 0.05) between duplicated evaluator groups. Regarding OSCE tools and categories, physical examination and skill categories did not show statistically significant differences between duplicated evaluator groups. OSCE scores showed moderate correlation with the cummulative performance grade in general (r=0.53, p< 0.01). CONCLUSIONs: OSCE could be regarded as a reasonable evaluating tool for the summative assessment after two years of clinical clerkship of the fourth year medical students. Analysis of the OSCE stations which was done individually and according to OSCE tools/categories helps to improve the OSCE more complete and the duplicated stations more coincident.