Assessment David Taylor Liverpool Assessing knowledge There are

Assessment David Taylor Liverpool

Assessing knowledge • There are many ways of assessing a student’s knowledge – – – Coursework Essays Multiple choice Matching items others

MCQ vs EMI • These are popular, since they are easy to mark • But actually very difficult to write, • they describe a continuum.

true/false Also known as guessing boys are taller than girls t/f

Multiple true/false Read the statement carefully, and give the best answer for each of the numbered statements the cardiac action potential 1. Is quicker than a nerve action potential 2. Calcium prolongs the action potential 3. The potassium channels control the length of the action potential

Multiple choice Which of the following characteristics of an axon is most dependent on its diameter? a. Its resting potential b. The duration of its refractory period c. The conduction velocity of its action potential d. The overshoot of its action potential e. The activity of its sodium-potassium pump a b c d e

More sophisticated Match an interval from the ECG tracing below with each of the events listed. a 47. 48. 49. b c d e Closure of the atrioventricular valve a b c d e repolarisation of the atria a b c d e depolarisation of the ventricles a b c d e

Matching items Each of the patients described below has symptoms of urinary urgency, frequency, and dysuria. Each has a midstream urine culture showing fewer than 10* colonyforming units per milliliter. For each of the numbered patients (1 -2), select the most likely cause from the list of conditions (A-E). A. Low -Count bladder bacteriuria B. Chlamydial Urethritis C. Urethral instability D. Urethral diverticulum E. Bacterial infection 1. A 36 -year-old woman with symptoms for 2 years; additional symptoms include postvoid dribbling and dyspareuria. 2. A 20 -year-old college student with pyuria and the gradual onset of symptoms over a period of 2 -3 weeks. She acquired a new sexual partner one month ago.

Advantages MIs • efficient for testing comparisons and related concepts and principles across broad content topic areas. • straightforward to write and edit. – It is important that all options relate to some common concept or theme – there are more stimuli than options, so that examinees cannot attain correct answers by eliminating options.

Disadvantages of MIs • Matching items tend to measure lower-level cognitive knowledge, such as recall or recognition of facts. • difficult to write traditional matching items that measure higher-order cognitive knowledge. • there is a tendency for this item type to test recall-recognition type information. • Over sampling of test content may also be problematic, • If some areas are over sampled, other content areas must necessarily be under sampled, thus reducing the test's validity evidence.

Extended matching items Options A. Acute leukemia B. Anemia of chronic disease C. Congestive heart failure D. Depression E. Epstein-Barr virus infection F. Folate deficiency G. Glucose 6 -phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency H. Hereditary spherocytosis I. Hypothyroidism J. Iron deficiency K. Lyme disease L. Microangiopathic hemolytic anemia M. Miliary tuberculosis N. Vitamin B 12 (Cyanocobalamin) deficiency Lead in For each patient with fatigue, select the most likely diagnosis. Each option can be used once, more than once, or not at all.

And the cases… 1. A 19 -year-old woman has had fatigue, fever, and sore throat for the past week. She has a temperature of 38. 3 C (101 F), cervical lymphadenopathy, and splenomegaly. Initial laboratory studies show a leukocyte count of 5000/mm 3 (80% lymphocytes, with many lymphocytes exhibiting atypical features). Serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST, GOT) activity is 200 U/L. Serum bilirubin concentration and serum alkaline phosphatase activity are within normal limits. 2. A 15 -year-old girl has a two-week history of fatigue and back pain. She has widespread bruising, pallor, and tenderness over the vertebrae and both femurs. Complete blood count shows hemoglobin concentration of 7. 0 g/d. L, leukocyte count of 2000/mm 3, and platelet count of 15, 000/mm 3.

What is an EMI four essential components: • a common theme of related concepts, • a (short) lead-in, • a list of options which are usually lengthy (always more than 5) and • two or more item stems

Advantages of EMIs • item stems that provide more detail – clinical scenarios • usually contain a long option list. • more difficult than multiple-choice questions, • with higher item discrimination • higher reliability estimates. • they may measure higher levels of the cognitive domain than the traditional matching item.

Disadvantages of EMIs • Over and under sampling of content • the longer option list may lead authors to create questions that make trivial distinctions.