Structured Versus Unstructured Questions for Formative Assessment in Physiology for Phase 1 MBBS Students Shrinidhi1,* 1Professor, Department of Physiology, MGM Medical College, Kishanganj, Bihar *Corresponding Author : Dr. Shrinidhi, Professor, Department of Physiology, MGM Medical College, Kishanganj, Bihar, Phone : +91-9886718491, E-mail: shrinidhi623@yahoo.co.in
Online Published on 28 July, 2023. Abstract Introduction Medical education has opened up to accept many changing concepts in the field of education. Before the implementation of new curriculum question papers have been open ended to a great extent and not structured ones. Answers for open-ended questions are also a subject to bias during evaluation. This has a great influence on their study pattern and their performance in the exams. Objectives To assess performance and compare perception of Phase 1 MBBS students with structured questions to conventional questions in formative assessment. Materials and Methods Six formative assessments were done on Phase 1 MBBS students. Only those students present on the day of exam were considered. They were divided into 2 groups, one group received structured questions and the other received unstructured questions for the assessments. Each of the assessment was of one-hour duration and carried 40 marks. Perception was taken at the end for both the formats of assessments. Results The performance is compared by Independent t test. Overall mean marks scored by students with structured questions is 14.29 ±5.57 and with unstructured questions is 14.643±6.07. Similar performance is seen in all the six assessments and there is no significant difference in the marks scored by the students. A significant number of the student disagreed that structured questions helped score better. Conclusion This study shows that there is no difference in performance of students with respect to structured or unstructured questions for formative assessment. Top Keywords Structured Questions, Unstructured Questions, Formative Assessment. Top |