Blueprint designing and validation for competency-based curriculum for theory assessment in community medicine

• Published in: Medical journal. Armed Forces India 2023-12, Vol.79 (Suppl 1), p.S47-S53
• Main Authors: Mathur, Medha, Verma, Anjana, Mathur, Navgeet, Kumar, Dewesh, Meena, Jitendra Kumar, Nayak, Smrutiranjan, Gaiki, Varun, Parmar, Piyushkumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Blueprint; Competency-based medical education; Curriculum; Original; Preventive and social medicine
• ISSN: 0377-1237; 2213-4743
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mjafi.2021.10.003

Blueprint provides a base for assessment by assigning proportionate weightage to various content areas and helps the paper setter to construct a uniform and valid assessment. This study aimed to design and validate a blueprint for theory in Community Medicine as per the new curriculum for Medical Undergraduates in India. Blueprint in community medicine was designed by assigning impact score (I) and frequency score (F) for the competencies. Blueprint was validated using the Content Validity Index (CVI), and inter-rater agreement for subject experts using Fleiss' kappa statistics was calculated. Feedback from faculty and students was obtained afterward to assess the postimplementation response. Blueprint was designed by an expert group where impact score and frequency score were assigned to 146 competencies in the theory of Community Medicine. In Delphi survey I, 63.2% of subject experts responded, while in Delphi survey II, a response rate of 58.3% was achieved. Value of the Fleiss' Kappa test for an inter-rater agreement was 0.68, i.e. “substantial agreement,” while CVI among the raters came out to be 0.86, i.e. overall valid assessment. Feedback of faculty (n = 11) suggested that the blueprint was helpful and standardized the paper setting, whereas feedback from students (n = 138) depicted that it helped in preparing for exams, and they would recommend it to other students. Validated blueprint by consensus of subject experts has impact score and frequency score along with topic-wise distribution of marks for the convenience of faculty and its utility is well proven among learners too.