Reorganizing assessment questions to provide additional information on student understanding of specific course content.

Abstract

Performance on exams and course letter grades are broad standards used to determine understanding of course content. To gain a different perspective on students' knowledge, we examined whether grouping exam questions based on the topic they assessed would provide additional information on students' comprehension. Assessment questions from our physiology course were organized into groups based on major physiology content categories. We created 10 content categories and calculated students' performance in each category. The average of the 10 scores was compared with the course grade. The scores in individual categories reflected student knowledge of specific physiology content. The average scores of the 10 categories correlated with course letter grades. Analysis of performance demonstrated that 65% of students with course grades between 70 and 73% answered less than 70% of assessment questions correctly in four or more content categories. Evaluation of performance in grouped assessment questions provided additional information on student understanding and identified specific course content in which students underperformed.