E‐testing in anatomical teaching

Abstract

In modern curricula on the one hand the time frame for anatomy teaching is progressively reduced, and on the other hand the successful integration with clinical applications must be confirmed. Taking into account the high number of 720 students/year at the Medical University of Vienna, and the parallel education of second‐ and third‐year students, more than 4000 individual assessments have to be plannend, held and evaluated each term. For this reasons and in order to avoid biases by different examiners, two e‐testing modalities were implemented. In settings where students have no access to individual PCs (e.g. in the dissection halls), auditory response systems were employed, whereas assessments held in a PC‐room used the moodle Course Management System. In both cases most of the questions were image‐based multiple choice questions. Due to the information about their grades immediately after the assessment, the equal level of difficulty for all students, and the chance to instantly clear up misunderstandings, the students’ compliance was continously encouraging during the past four years. Both types are technically mature and – once an adequate question library is established – cost‐ and time‐saving. Immediate statistical analyses of answer patterns provide teachers with valuable, objective feedback and enable teachers to rapidly accommodate contents and objectives to the students actual level of competence.