Objective: To compare online and on campus summative assessments for their effectiveness and reliability.
Methodology: Two batches of final year students of Shifa College of Medicine in their obstetrics and gynaecology clerkship were enrolled as participants. Each batch had 29 students. So the total participants were 58. Group 1 had their curriculum delivery followed by their formative and summative assessments on campus. Group 2 had their curriculum delivery followed by their formative and summative assessments on line. The clerkship was for 9 weeks. The curriculum was divided into seven modules (antenatal care, medical disorders in pregnancy, labor, fertility, menstrual disorders, uro-gynaecology/menopause and gynecological oncology). The summative assessments comprised of 100 single best multiple choice questions, 10 short answer questions and 12 station Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for the ethics, attitude, knowledge and skills.
Results: Formative online assessments had a Cronbach of 0.89. Online formative knowledge assessments had a significant positive correlation with students online summative scores (0.497, p=0.006). Online formative OSCE scores had a non-significant positive correlation with online summative OSCE scores (0.191, p=0.32). In on campus group, Pearson correlation between formative and summative knowledge assessments was r= 0.473 (p=0.009)
Conclusion: Online formative assessments of knowledge and skills were predictive of summative assessment scores. Hence, time and effort spent in online formative assessments was fruitful.
Key words: Academic performance, test scores, educational measurement.
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