Assessment Tools Preferred by the Undergraduate Clinical Medical Students: A Study in National Defense University of Malaysia

Abstract


 Background: Assessment in medical education is necessary to determine the students’ competency as well as other attributes. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the methods of assessment at the end of rotational posting examination and final professional examination at the end of the course, preferred by the undergraduate clinical medical students. Methods: This study was conducted on 89 medical students belonging to 4th and 5th year of the Faculty of Medicine, National Defense University of Malaysia (NDUM).Results: In this study 46 students were males (51.7%) and 43 (48.3%) females; the mean age was 23.5 years. Among the multiple-choice questions (MCQ), a combination that contained multiple true-false and single best answer, was preferred by 55.1% of the students. Among the essay type of written assessments “problem management patient (PMP)” questions were preferred most (46.1%) followed by modified essay questions (MEQ), short essay questions (SEQ), and key feature questions (KFQ). Among the assessments by long case, conventional long case, which had been practiced during the course, was preferred by 67.4% of the students at the end of the medical program rather than the modified or observed long case examinations. While assessment by short case, running commentary on what was being examined, was preferred by 47.2% of students, followed by no commentary (38.2%) and not sure by the rest. 56.2% of students would prefer procedure OSCEs on mannequins and the rest won’t. Picture quizzes were highly preferred (89.9%).Conclusion: At the end of the medical program the clinical medical students prefer those methods which have already been practiced by them during the academic course. For the best achievement, every tool of assessments used in the medical curriculum should be made clear to the students and the students should practice those before they proceed for final evaluation.

Navigating the assessment landscape: Dental students' perceptions of extended‐matching questions versus single‐correct answers

“…The current findings showed a lower preference for EMQs over SCAs across all learning style groups among dental students based on Item 11, suggesting that this assessment method may not be well‐received within this cohort. This finding contrasts with the results of another Malaysian study involving medical students, conducted by Ahmed and Reddy, 28 where medical students showed a higher preference for EMQs. One possible explanation for this contrast could be that the medical students in the other study had prior exposure or experience with EMQs, which contributed to their preference for this assessment method.…”

Undergraduate Medical Students’ Preferred Choices of Learning Style, Teaching Pedagogies and Assessment methods in the Ophthalmology Module at National Defence University of Malaysia

“…Year 4 students posted in the Ophthalmology department in the academic years 2021-22 and 2022-23 were enrolled in this study. The questionnaires published earlier by Ahmad and Reddy [6][7][8] were used in this study with slight modification to suit the teaching and assessment methods of the Ophthalmology module/course. A close ended questionnaire form was given to all the students after their end of posting examination to answer their responses to different questions.…”

“…Although published papers are available from Malaysia on the learning preferences, teaching methods and tools of assessment of exclusively clinical students in a medical institute [6][7][8][9][10][11][12], there was none on ophthalmology subject. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the students' preferred learning style, to determine their preferred teaching methods and assessment methods in Ophthalmology module/course.…”