Evaluation of Reliability in Structured Viva Voce As a Formative Assessment of Dental Students

Abstract

An oral assessment is a direct way to assess students' learning outcomes by questioning them. The format of oral examinations () is not uniform. Unlike interviews, which usually have structured question lists, oral assessments usually do not have a question structure. Structured overcomes the weaknesses of traditional The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of structured as a formative assessment of dental students. A sample of 65 third-year and 70 fourth-year dental students at one dental school in India were subjected to structured examinations with questions derived from the subject of periodontics. Each examinee answered five questions (two open and three closed) asked by trained unbiased examiners. The structured examinations were conducted on the seventh and 14th days after the last lecture of a one-month lecture series. Scores were tabulated into three domains of Bloom's taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, and application. Regarding knowledge, the mean scores were 1.24±0.59 (seventh day) and 1.66±0.64 (14th day), and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). Regarding comprehension, the mean scores were 0.92±0.57 (seventh day) and 1.44±0.65 (14th day), and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). Regarding application, the mean scores were 0.56±0.50 (seventh day) and 1.0±0.43 (14th day) in Domain II, and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). The results suggest that structured was a reliable method for the formative assessment of these dental students.

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