Comparison of undergraduate dental students' academic performance using structured and unstructured oral examinations

Abstract

Introduction: Assessment plays a central role in formal education. Unstructured oral examinations are the status quo in dental education in India but have some drawbacks, including a lack of inter-rater reliability. It is not known whether structured oral examinations provide different scores nor how they will be accepted by students or examiners.Materials and Methods: A sample of 20 students were randomly selected from a group of third-year BDS students who had scored 65% and above in the 2nd year university examination in Bapuji Dental College and Hospital. They were exposed to a total of 4 h of lecture and problem-solving sessions on dental ethics. Four raters (teaching faculty), having similar academic experience and designation, were selected and they were trained to conduct structured oral examinations according to a format, especially designed for the same purpose. Half the students underwent structured examination followed by unstructured examination while half the students underwent unstructured examination followed by structured examination. Paired t-test was applied to find out the statistical difference between structured and unstructured oral examination formats.Results: The students obtained a mean score of 13.35 ± 3.8 out of a total score of 20 in the unstructured oral examination when compared to a mean score of 14 ± 3.76 in the structured oral examination. The difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.69). The acceptance trended favorable for structure examination but was not statistically significant. The structured examination had higher inter-rater reliability than the unstructured examination.Conclusion: The results showed good reliability and repeatability of the structured oral examination format with an inter-rater reliability of 0.82. Structured viva voce was not found to improve the performance of students when compared to unstructured viva voce.The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Practice-based learning and improvement, Patient care and procedural skills, Systems-based practice, Medical knowledge, Interpersonal and communication skills, and Professionalism.