Computer‐Based Testing and Construction of an Item Bank Database for Medical Education in Korea

Abstract

A number of medical schools in Korea have been using computer-based testing (CBT) for evaluating their students’ scientific and/or clinical performance since the early 1990s. Introducing CBT to medical education would have several advantages: first, presenting figures and audio-video files of clinical content is simple with CBT, making it possible to evaluate medical students’ competency with navigating more realistic clinical situations at minimum cost; second, CBT enables automatic item analysis and score reporting. To establish CBT, constructing an item bank with item parameters such as difficulty or discriminating parameters will be needed. To select more psychometrically sound items, analysis of the items according to item response theory is necessary. CBT has already been introduced in high stakes tests like the United States Medical Licensing Examination and the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination. The National Health Personnel Examination Board in Korea is also planning to introduce a CBT-based version of the National Medical Examination soon. Thus all medical schools in Korea will need to introduce CBT and construct item banks to prepare their students for their licensing examinations and to measure the students’ competency more accurately