Use of very short answer questions compared to multiple choice questions in undergraduate medical students: An external validation study.

Autor: van Wijk EV; Center for Innovation in Medical Education, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands., Janse RJ; Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands., Ruijter BN; Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands., Rohling JHT; Department of Cell and Chemical Biology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands., van der Kraan J; Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands., Crobach S; Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands., Jonge M; Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands., Beaufort AJ; Center for Innovation in Medical Education, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands., Dekker FW; Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands., Langers AMJ; Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2023 Jul 14; Vol. 18 (7), pp. e0288558. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jul 14 (Print Publication: 2023).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288558
Abstrakt: Multiple choice questions (MCQs) offer high reliability and easy machine-marking, but allow for cueing and stimulate recognition-based learning. Very short answer questions (VSAQs), which are open-ended questions requiring a very short answer, may circumvent these limitations. Although VSAQ use in medical assessment increases, almost all research on reliability and validity of VSAQs in medical education has been performed by a single research group with extensive experience in the development of VSAQs. Therefore, we aimed to validate previous findings about VSAQ reliability, discrimination, and acceptability in undergraduate medical students and teachers with limited experience in VSAQs development. To validate the results presented in previous studies, we partially replicated a previous study and extended results on student experiences. Dutch undergraduate medical students (n = 375) were randomized to VSAQs first and MCQs second or vice versa in a formative exam in two courses, to determine reliability, discrimination, and cueing. Acceptability for teachers (i.e., VSAQ review time) was determined in the summative exam. Reliability (Cronbach's α) was 0.74 for VSAQs and 0.57 for MCQs in one course. In the other course, Cronbach's α was 0.87 for VSAQs and 0.83 for MCQs. Discrimination (average Rir) was 0.27 vs. 0.17 and 0.43 vs. 0.39 for VSAQs vs. MCQs, respectively. Reviewing time of one VSAQ for the entire student cohort was ±2 minutes on average. Positive cueing occurred more in MCQs than in VSAQs (20% vs. 4% and 20.8% vs. 8.3% of questions per person in both courses). This study validates the positive results regarding VSAQs reliability, discrimination, and acceptability in undergraduate medical students. Furthermore, we demonstrate that VSAQ use is reliable among teachers with limited experience in writing and marking VSAQs. The short learning curve for teachers, favourable marking time and applicability regardless of the topic suggest that VSAQs might also be valuable beyond medical assessment.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2023 van Wijk et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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