Assessment of need for capacity building in framing multiple choice questions for undergraduate medical students

Abstract

Background: Assessment is a critical component of medical education because tests have a powerful influence on student learning. Multiple choice question (MCQ) tests have been established as a part of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. A notable concern of many health professionals is that they are frequently faced with the task of constructing tests with little or no experience or training in how to perform this task. Objective: The aim of the study was to point to a need for capacity building in the assessment of medical students, and MCQs were chosen as a surrogate for that. Materials and Methods: Residents posted at the Department of Community Medicine contributed a total of 166 questions independently on different topics to a question bank in 3 days′ duration. Once the data bank on questions was secured, a basic 2-h workshop on developing MCQs was conducted with the residents. After this, the data bank of questions was handed over to the residents for any modifications that they wanted to incorporate into their set of questions within 2 days. Results: The modifications were recorded with the residents. A total of 16.8% (28/166) of the questions were changed in their entirety. The total change in questions amounted to 34.3% (57/166). Conclusion: Training is an important contributor in effective development of MCQs for the purpose of assessment.

Keywords

• Medical education
• multiple choice questions (MCQs)
• surrogate