Introducing Electronic Question Banks in a Medical College: The Need and the Plan

Abstract

As medical education continues to evolve each day, the assessment of the knowledge domain occupies a key role in the process of producing competent medical graduates [1]. There is an immense need to assess medical students’ intellectual abilities, critical thinking, and problem-solving attributes, which go beyond testing recall skills [1]. Teachers must assess the ability of students to apply their knowledge in clinical practice (higher-order thinking skills) [1,2]. Conventional print-based assessments have been in use for decades, but with time, multiple shortcomings of such assessments, like the absence of multimedia elements, difficulty in evaluating answers, and wastage of papers, have surfaced. This has encouraged medical educators to opt for innovative solutions [3]. Electronic Question Banks (EQBs) have the potential to measure higher-order cognitive skills because they allow for the inclusion of different types of questions, including case-based scenarios, and the incorporation of interactive and multimedia elements, which are crucial for effective clinical decision-making [4].

Keywords

• assessment
• competence
• learning
• medical education
• student