Objectives: The sudden advent of the COVID pandemic resulted in limited face to face interactions... more Objectives: The sudden advent of the COVID pandemic resulted in limited face to face interactions and the dental school in the University of the West Indies was challenged to complete the final year with a rapid transition to online teaching. This study examined students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of emergency remote online teaching and challenges experienced. Materials and Methods: Two independent online cross-sectional surveys were administered on the perception of the online learning environment and challenges experienced and effectiveness of strategies used. Overall thirty three dental students and eleven clinical academic teachers participated. Statistical analysis: Reliability of the questionnaire was determined. Chi-squared (χ2) tests were applied for determining the perceptions of students and teachers towards online teaching. Frequencies and percentages were also computed. Results: The majority of students (60.6% - 69.7%) perceived that online teaching ...
Background: Smartphones and medical education apps are popular with and are widely used by medica... more Background: Smartphones and medical education apps are popular with and are widely used by medical students to facilitate peer interactions, communication and collaboration in addition to their “learn anywhere” advantage. Smartphone use by medical students has not been studied in the English-speaking Caribbean. Study objectives were to assess in preclinical students attending the University of the West Indies in Barbados, smartphone ownership, usage and attitudes toward use in medical education.Methods: First and second year preclinical medical students completed a self-administered paper-based questionnaire during the 2018–2019 academic year. Survey questions included sections on smartphone ownership, medical apps used, phone usage for education related tasks, and the perception on the usefulness of smartphones in medical education.Results: Of 112 participants (response rate 67.4%), 43% considered using the smartphone for medical education when acquiring it but 92% were currently u...
The pandemic forced final year clinical students in six health-profession programs in a Caribbean... more The pandemic forced final year clinical students in six health-profession programs in a Caribbean University to suddenly transition from a clinical learning environment to an exclusively online environment for clinical instruction. The change in curriculum delivery allowed students to compare teaching of clinical skills using clinical and online learning environments. In June 2020, 278 students (78% response rate) completed a survey rating the online teaching experience. Students from each discipline also participated in a focus group discussion. Of the sample, 88% of students felt that the online environment was enthusiastic and stimulating but did not view it as satisfactory for skills transfer; 77% felt connected with their teachers but deprived of the social connectedness, peer support, and vicarious learning afforded by face-to-face instruction. Clinical students perceived the online environment as a convenient and beneficial platform to deliver didactic components of the clini...
Background: Most universities around the world use the multiple-choice question (MCQ) examination... more Background: Most universities around the world use the multiple-choice question (MCQ) examination format to evaluate medical education. However, the suitability and advantages of traditional MCQs and extended matching questions (EMQs) continue to be debated. Objectives: This study mainly aimed to perform a comprehensive comparative analysis of the performance of the EMQ and traditional MCQ formats in the final MBBS exit examination. Methods: We conducted an item analysis of 80 EMQs, and 200 MCQs administered to 532 examinees across the four campuses of the University of the West Indies during the final MBBS medicine and therapeutics examination of 2019. Exam performance measures included central tendency, item discrimination, reliability, item difficulty, and distractor efficacy. Results: For the 532 students who sat the exam, the highest, lowest, and mean (± SD) scores for the EMQs were 93, 41, and 69.0 (± 9.8), respectively; for the MCQs, the respective values were 82, 41, and 62....
Background: Social accountability is defined as “the obligation of medical schools to direct thei... more Background: Social accountability is defined as “the obligation of medical schools to direct their education, research and service activities toward addressing the priority health concerns of the community, region, and/or nation that they have a mandate to serve”. It is becoming increasingly critical in evaluating medical school performance and education quality. Medical students must have an appropriate understanding of social accountability. This study explores knowledge, attitudes and institutional readiness as perceived by medical students towards social accountability. Method: An independent online cross-sectional survey was conducted, which included 121 medical students recruited through a convenience sampling technique. The survey instruments were validated through a pilot study and the responses were analyzed using chi-squared (χ2) tests. Frequencies and percentages were computed. Results: A total of 69% of students understood SA, 61.2% believed they demonstrated SA, and 82....
Background: Most universities around the world use the multiple-choice question (MCQ) examination... more Background: Most universities around the world use the multiple-choice question (MCQ) examination format to evaluate medical education. However, the suitability and advantages of traditional MCQs and extended matching questions (EMQs) continue to be debated. Objectives: This study mainly aimed to perform a comprehensive comparative analysis of the performance of the EMQ and traditional MCQ formats in the final MBBS exit examination. Methods: We conducted an item analysis of 80 EMQs, and 200 MCQs administered to 532 examinees across the four campuses of the University of the West Indies during the final MBBS medicine and therapeutics examination of 2019. Exam performance measures included central tendency, item discrimination, reliability, item difficulty, and distractor efficacy. Results: For the 532 students who sat the exam, the highest, lowest, and mean (± SD) scores for the EMQs were 93, 41, and 69.0 (± 9.8), respectively; for the MCQs, the respective values were 82, 41, and 62.7 (± 7.4). The predictive value of the EMQ and MCQ grades individually in the overall failure was 0.67 (95% CI = 0.39, 0.87) and 0.89 (95% CI = 0.65, 0.98), respectively. KR-20 coefficients for the EMQs and MCQs ranged from 0.52 to 0.70 and 0.71 to 0.79, respectively. The proportion of questions with two or more functional distractors was consistently higher for the MCQs than for the EMQs in all four cohorts of students. Conclusions: The MCQs were more predictive of the overall failure and had higher inter-item reliability, making the MCQ format more suitable for high-stakes examinations.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
This paper reports on the relationship between pre-testing and student performance in final exami... more This paper reports on the relationship between pre-testing and student performance in final examinations. Diagnostic pre-testing is a valuable tool that identifies gaps in knowledge among students; identifies teaching requirements, and helps direct teaching programmes to take corrective measures. Pre-test scores may also help to predict student performance in final examinations. A retrospective descriptive correlational analysis was conducted on third year medical students, performance in the total haematology components of selected multi-specialty final integrated examinations in four third year courses and one related first year course. These students had previously been given a diagnostic pre-test in haematology at the start of their third year programme. Of the 159 students eligible for the study, 130 passed and 29 failed the pre-test. Some students responded to the interventions instituted after the diagnostic pre-test and others did not. The pre-test proved to be a good predictor of final results. Correlation between the pre-test and the total haematology components of the different final integrated examinations ranged from r= .264 to r= .475) and between the pretest and the final integrated examinations ranged from r= .375 to r= .467. It was concluded that the pre-testing grade is a reliable indicator of performance in the final examinations. However interventions need to be revised to encourage more individual, student engagement.
Although a core element in patient care the trajectory of empathy during undergraduate medical ed... more Although a core element in patient care the trajectory of empathy during undergraduate medical education remains unclear. Empathy is generally regarded as comprising an affective capacity: the ability to be sensitive to and concerned for, another and a cognitive capacity: the ability to understand and appreciate the other person's perspective. The authors investigated whether final year undergraduate students recorded lower levels of empathy than their first year counterparts, and whether male and female students differed in this respect. Between September 2013 and June 2014 an online questionnaire survey was administered to 15 UK, and 2 international medical schools. Participating schools provided both 5-6 year standard courses and 4 year accelerated graduate entry courses. The survey incorporated the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Student Version (JSE-S) and…
Objectives: The sudden advent of the COVID pandemic resulted in limited face to face interactions... more Objectives: The sudden advent of the COVID pandemic resulted in limited face to face interactions and the dental school in the University of the West Indies was challenged to complete the final year with a rapid transition to online teaching. This study examined students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of emergency remote online teaching and challenges experienced. Materials and Methods: Two independent online cross-sectional surveys were administered on the perception of the online learning environment and challenges experienced and effectiveness of strategies used. Overall thirty three dental students and eleven clinical academic teachers participated. Statistical analysis: Reliability of the questionnaire was determined. Chi-squared (χ2) tests were applied for determining the perceptions of students and teachers towards online teaching. Frequencies and percentages were also computed. Results: The majority of students (60.6% - 69.7%) perceived that online teaching ...
Background: Smartphones and medical education apps are popular with and are widely used by medica... more Background: Smartphones and medical education apps are popular with and are widely used by medical students to facilitate peer interactions, communication and collaboration in addition to their “learn anywhere” advantage. Smartphone use by medical students has not been studied in the English-speaking Caribbean. Study objectives were to assess in preclinical students attending the University of the West Indies in Barbados, smartphone ownership, usage and attitudes toward use in medical education.Methods: First and second year preclinical medical students completed a self-administered paper-based questionnaire during the 2018–2019 academic year. Survey questions included sections on smartphone ownership, medical apps used, phone usage for education related tasks, and the perception on the usefulness of smartphones in medical education.Results: Of 112 participants (response rate 67.4%), 43% considered using the smartphone for medical education when acquiring it but 92% were currently u...
The pandemic forced final year clinical students in six health-profession programs in a Caribbean... more The pandemic forced final year clinical students in six health-profession programs in a Caribbean University to suddenly transition from a clinical learning environment to an exclusively online environment for clinical instruction. The change in curriculum delivery allowed students to compare teaching of clinical skills using clinical and online learning environments. In June 2020, 278 students (78% response rate) completed a survey rating the online teaching experience. Students from each discipline also participated in a focus group discussion. Of the sample, 88% of students felt that the online environment was enthusiastic and stimulating but did not view it as satisfactory for skills transfer; 77% felt connected with their teachers but deprived of the social connectedness, peer support, and vicarious learning afforded by face-to-face instruction. Clinical students perceived the online environment as a convenient and beneficial platform to deliver didactic components of the clini...
Background: Most universities around the world use the multiple-choice question (MCQ) examination... more Background: Most universities around the world use the multiple-choice question (MCQ) examination format to evaluate medical education. However, the suitability and advantages of traditional MCQs and extended matching questions (EMQs) continue to be debated. Objectives: This study mainly aimed to perform a comprehensive comparative analysis of the performance of the EMQ and traditional MCQ formats in the final MBBS exit examination. Methods: We conducted an item analysis of 80 EMQs, and 200 MCQs administered to 532 examinees across the four campuses of the University of the West Indies during the final MBBS medicine and therapeutics examination of 2019. Exam performance measures included central tendency, item discrimination, reliability, item difficulty, and distractor efficacy. Results: For the 532 students who sat the exam, the highest, lowest, and mean (± SD) scores for the EMQs were 93, 41, and 69.0 (± 9.8), respectively; for the MCQs, the respective values were 82, 41, and 62....
Background: Social accountability is defined as “the obligation of medical schools to direct thei... more Background: Social accountability is defined as “the obligation of medical schools to direct their education, research and service activities toward addressing the priority health concerns of the community, region, and/or nation that they have a mandate to serve”. It is becoming increasingly critical in evaluating medical school performance and education quality. Medical students must have an appropriate understanding of social accountability. This study explores knowledge, attitudes and institutional readiness as perceived by medical students towards social accountability. Method: An independent online cross-sectional survey was conducted, which included 121 medical students recruited through a convenience sampling technique. The survey instruments were validated through a pilot study and the responses were analyzed using chi-squared (χ2) tests. Frequencies and percentages were computed. Results: A total of 69% of students understood SA, 61.2% believed they demonstrated SA, and 82....
Background: Most universities around the world use the multiple-choice question (MCQ) examination... more Background: Most universities around the world use the multiple-choice question (MCQ) examination format to evaluate medical education. However, the suitability and advantages of traditional MCQs and extended matching questions (EMQs) continue to be debated. Objectives: This study mainly aimed to perform a comprehensive comparative analysis of the performance of the EMQ and traditional MCQ formats in the final MBBS exit examination. Methods: We conducted an item analysis of 80 EMQs, and 200 MCQs administered to 532 examinees across the four campuses of the University of the West Indies during the final MBBS medicine and therapeutics examination of 2019. Exam performance measures included central tendency, item discrimination, reliability, item difficulty, and distractor efficacy. Results: For the 532 students who sat the exam, the highest, lowest, and mean (± SD) scores for the EMQs were 93, 41, and 69.0 (± 9.8), respectively; for the MCQs, the respective values were 82, 41, and 62.7 (± 7.4). The predictive value of the EMQ and MCQ grades individually in the overall failure was 0.67 (95% CI = 0.39, 0.87) and 0.89 (95% CI = 0.65, 0.98), respectively. KR-20 coefficients for the EMQs and MCQs ranged from 0.52 to 0.70 and 0.71 to 0.79, respectively. The proportion of questions with two or more functional distractors was consistently higher for the MCQs than for the EMQs in all four cohorts of students. Conclusions: The MCQs were more predictive of the overall failure and had higher inter-item reliability, making the MCQ format more suitable for high-stakes examinations.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
This paper reports on the relationship between pre-testing and student performance in final exami... more This paper reports on the relationship between pre-testing and student performance in final examinations. Diagnostic pre-testing is a valuable tool that identifies gaps in knowledge among students; identifies teaching requirements, and helps direct teaching programmes to take corrective measures. Pre-test scores may also help to predict student performance in final examinations. A retrospective descriptive correlational analysis was conducted on third year medical students, performance in the total haematology components of selected multi-specialty final integrated examinations in four third year courses and one related first year course. These students had previously been given a diagnostic pre-test in haematology at the start of their third year programme. Of the 159 students eligible for the study, 130 passed and 29 failed the pre-test. Some students responded to the interventions instituted after the diagnostic pre-test and others did not. The pre-test proved to be a good predictor of final results. Correlation between the pre-test and the total haematology components of the different final integrated examinations ranged from r= .264 to r= .475) and between the pretest and the final integrated examinations ranged from r= .375 to r= .467. It was concluded that the pre-testing grade is a reliable indicator of performance in the final examinations. However interventions need to be revised to encourage more individual, student engagement.
Although a core element in patient care the trajectory of empathy during undergraduate medical ed... more Although a core element in patient care the trajectory of empathy during undergraduate medical education remains unclear. Empathy is generally regarded as comprising an affective capacity: the ability to be sensitive to and concerned for, another and a cognitive capacity: the ability to understand and appreciate the other person's perspective. The authors investigated whether final year undergraduate students recorded lower levels of empathy than their first year counterparts, and whether male and female students differed in this respect. Between September 2013 and June 2014 an online questionnaire survey was administered to 15 UK, and 2 international medical schools. Participating schools provided both 5-6 year standard courses and 4 year accelerated graduate entry courses. The survey incorporated the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Student Version (JSE-S) and…
Uploads
Papers by Bidyadhar Sa