Trends of undergoing formative assessment in undergraduate medical students

Abstract

Objective: Medical curriculum is always subject to new strategies to ensure effective delivery of learning material. Online formative assessments are gaining popularity over conventional paper based formative assessments due to recent advances in technology and increasing familiarity of students with computer-based examinations. With this background, objectives of this study were to explore trends of computer based formative assessment in undergraduate medical students and to investigate the impact of online formative assessments on summative assessment scores. Methodology: A prospective cohort study was conducted on 100 medical students from 3rd year in November 2016 and July 2017. The data was collected using SPSS software and analyzed by T-tests and descriptive tables. Results: The mean summative score of students who took an online formative assessment in a module was significantly higher compared to mean score of students who did not take formative assessment. Mean summative score of another group of students who took an online formative assessment in a different module was statistically different than mean score of students who did not take formative assessment (p- Value = 0.00). Conclusion: Online formative assessment is an effective tool for improving student’s performance in the summative assessment.