Evaluation of Oral Examination of Medical Undergraduates in Pharmacology – A Conceptual Study
Suneel I. Majagi *
Department of Pharmacology, Gadag Institute of Medical Sciences, Gadag-582103, Karnataka, India and Department of Pharmacology, J. N. Medical College, Belgaum- 590010, India.
Yoo Soon Park
Department of Medical Education (DME), University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), USA.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aims: Oral examination has held an important place in medicine for centuries. Apart from some advantages, oral examinations are prone to many errors contributing towards threats to validity like Construct Under-representation and Construct Irrelevant Variance. Reliability, validity, feasibility and acceptability have to be considered when evaluating efficacy of any assessment protocol. Present conceptual study analyses the problems focusing on validity issues and other relevant challenges in present oral examination conducted for second year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) undergraduates in pharmacology in Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Belgaum.
Study Design: Experimental, Randomised, Controlled study with Cross over design.
Methodology: To overcome these problems a solution has been proposed in the form of Structured Oral Examination (SOE). Details of the process involved in actually conducting SOE and how it contributes towards validity is elaborated. Conceptual framework used in the present study consists of five sources of evidence for construct validity comprising content, response process, internal structure, relationship to other variables and consequences. Research Question: Efficacy (in terms of reliability, validity, feasibility, acceptability and test scores) of SOE differs when compared to that of conventional oral examination. Second phase MBBS students will be randomly divided into two groups. In cross over design, each group will be exposed to both types of interventions: Conventional oral examination and SOE in the formative assessment. Attitude/feedback tests will be conducted for both groups and educators. Apart from the routine conventional oral examination, SOE which contain different stations with standardized scoring scales will be administered. In SOE each student has to face all the stations and answer all the questions.
Results and Conclusion: SOE may replace the conventional oral examinations in pharmacology. Practicability of the present conceptual study has to be confirmed.
Keywords: Conventional, examination, oral, pharmacology, structured, undergraduates, validity.