Study of the impact of objective structured laboratory examination to evaluate students' practical competencies

Measurement of multiple competencies of students is getting more emphasis in undergraduate education validating the need for work-ready graduates. We developed the objective structured laboratory examination (OSLE) to measure the practical competencies of final year biomedical science students. This...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of biological education 2022-10, Vol.56 (5), p.560-569
Main Authors: Chitra, Ebenezer, Ramamurthy, Srinivasan, Mohamed, Shar Mariam, Nadarajah, Vishna Devi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
biomedical science students
Biomedicine
Competence
competency-based education
Education Work Relationship
Feedback (Response)
Grade Point Average
Laboratory Experiments
laboratory skill assessment
Likert Scales
objective structured laboratory examination
Practical competencies
Reliability
Science Instruction
Science Tests
Student Attitudes
Teaching Methods
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:Measurement of multiple competencies of students is getting more emphasis in undergraduate education validating the need for work-ready graduates. We developed the objective structured laboratory examination (OSLE) to measure the practical competencies of final year biomedical science students. This paper analyses the impact of OSLE on students' practical competencies and the utility of OSLE. A total of 63 students (89%) from two different cohorts (BM1 and BM2) were recruited to give feedback on OSLE using a structured questionnaire under three themes viz., prior learning, administration and feedback. Open feedback was obtained from both faculty and students. Reliability of different components of the questionnaire was established by Cronbach's α. Correlation between OSLE score and cGPA (cumulative grade point average) of each student was calculated using Pearson correlation coefficient. Cronbach's α value for all the three domains ranged from 0.6 to0.9. Students' perception of OSLE was generally positive with a median of 4 in a to 5-point Likert scale (4 = agree). Feedback from students and faculty indicated that OSLE motivated the students to improve their practical skills. Interestingly, there was no correlation between OSLE score and cGPA of the students reiterating the different competency sets used by skill assessment versus knowledge assessment.
ISSN:0021-9266
2157-6009
DOI:10.1080/00219266.2020.1858931