Comparison between students’ perception and examination validity, reliability and items difficulty: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

<jats:p>Introduction: Students' perception of an examination reflects their feelings, while its item analysis refers to a statistical analysis of students’ responses to examination items. The study was conducted to compare the student’s perception towards examination to its item analysis. Material and methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted at the college of medicine, from January to April 2019. The study used a structured questionnaire and standardized item analysis of students’ examinations. All students who had registered for semester two (2018-2019) were included in the study. Exclusion criteria included students who refused to participate in the study or those who did not fill the questionnaire.&#x0D; Result: KR-20 of the examination was 0.906. The average difficulty index of the examination was 69.4. The response rate of the questionnaire was 88.9% (40/45). Students considered the examination to be easy (70.4%). A significant correlation was reported between student perceptions towards examination difficulty and standard examination difficulty.&#x0D; Discussion: Student perceptions support the evidence of examination validity. Students were found able to estimate examination difficulty.&#x0D; Keywords: Student perception, Item analysis, Assessment, validity, reliability. </jats:p>

An assessment of preclinical removable prosthodontics based on multiple‐choice questions: Stakeholders' perceptions

“…Only a few studies have been conducted on the perceptions of students and faculty members regarding the quality of assessments. [24][25][26][27] We found some questions from these studies that could be addressed in our study. The second step consisted of interviews with a few dental students and prosthodontics faculty members who helped identify the problems from the stakeholders' perspective.…”

“…The values for most of these questions in our study are in agreement with the study conducted by Rezigalla et al, who conducted a study on second-year students at the College of Medicine, University of Bisha. 25 The only question to which disagreement in the values occurred concerned the difficulty of the assessment, for which 70.4% said the assessment was easy.…”

“…The WSA setup, such as the construction of the assessment by faculty members involved in teaching the course and using the blueprint, supports the content form of validity. [24][25][26] With MCQs typically asked for each area of the blueprint, they can be used to provide feedback on how candidates perform in different areas. In addition, the acceptable percentage of students who passed the WSA supported the construct validity.…”

“…These findings are supported by previous studies by Rafique and Rafique, Rezigalla et al, and Preston et al, who reported that validity is based on the extent to which a measurement reflects a specific intended content. [24][25][26] Regarding the open-ended questions, the faculty members noted that most students did not answer questions related to clinical applications and settings, indicating that a missing link between theory and clinical applications.…”

“…24 Students' perceptions of an assessment reflect their feelings toward the questions in the assessment, and the best way to record these perceptions is through feedback provided by the students after the assessment. 25 In addition to evaluating students' perceptions, it is also important to consider the course/subject team members' feedback regarding the assessment to ensure accurate evaluation of the learning and teaching processes. This feedback should be considered because the course/subject team members are totally involved in direct measures of learning, such as the students' assessment scores and measuring course/subject learning outcomes.…”