Online Practical Assessment (Opra) in Biochemistry Designed on Bloom’s Taxonomy to Assess the Student’s Competency: Prior Exposure of the Students to Online Tools Beneficial

Abstract

Background: Online assessments are the need of the hour during the prevailing pandemic situation to continue the educational activities and at the same time ensuring the safety of the students and faculty. All Higher Educational Institutions must take the necessary steps to design an effective assessment model to assess the various levels of student competency. Here, we analyzed the responses of the students after the conduct of the online practical assessment (OPrA) in Biochemistry.Methods: The blueprint of the OPrA was prepared by the faculty referring to the various levels and domains of Bloom’s taxonomy. Four components were chosen for the online assessment: digital spotters, enumerating the steps of objective structured practical examination, interpretation of quantitative estimation, and case discussion. Detailed instruction was provided to the students and the breakout room option in the Zoom platform was chosen for assessment. About 12-13 students were assessed by each faculty in separate breakout rooms over 15-20 minutes on all four components. Feedback on the conduct of the examination was collected from the students and faculty anonymously and analyzed. Results: Among 200 students who submitted their responses, 20% of them had previous experience of attending the OPrA. They differed in their opinion from the rest of the students on five aspects; time allotted for the assessment (P-value=0.02, χ2=5.07), students using unfair means during the online viva (P-value=0.02, χ2=5.57), their computing skills (P-value=0.001, χ2=19.82), their performance (P-value=0.001, χ2=8.84), and overall conduct of the examination (P-value=0.001, χ2=15.55). Conclusion: OPrA tools may be designed referring to Bloom’s taxonomy and prior exposure to the online tools may be beneficial for the students.