Online Test Application during COVID-19 Pandemic: Academic Impact on Medical Students of the biggest School of Medicine in Mexico

Abstract

Introduction: Online assessment is an educational alternative in this health emergency generated by COVID-19. To meet the educational demands of the School of Medicine of the UNAM, we implemented the evaluation of their subjects of the Medical Bachelor online, avoiding the delay of the school career of their students. Methods: A quantitative analysis was conducted to evaluate the academic performance of students enrolled in the first and second year of the degree of Medical Bachelor, being the school years with the highest percentage of failure. Two cohorts of students (2019 vs 2020) in the first and second year of the degree (4,737 students) were analyzed. We compared their school performance in the exams taken in those years (2019 on School premises and 2020 online due to the COVID-19 pandemic) to observe if there was a significant difference through statistical tests according to the distribution of the cohorts. Results: A significant difference was obtained in subjects of both school years according to their school performance. Besides, the percentage of the passing of the 16 subjects in their two evaluations was evaluated, observing that the students of the year 2020 had a higher rate of passing compared to the year 2019, even in those subjects with a higher percentage of failing. Discussion: Our study allowed us to compare the academic performance of our students in two types of examinations, in the School of Medicine and online (because of COVID-19), a situation that will enable us to assess the advantages of this adaptation and a new form of evaluation as a result of the health emergency.

Academic Performance in Medical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

“…Six out of 11 studies showed differences in outcome of before and during COVID-19 pandemic 2 , 24 , 31 , 35 , 36 , 39 and five other studies with no difference in outcome. 28 , 32 , 33 , 37 , 40 It means that more studies reported the influence of COVID-19 pandemic situation to academic performance.…”

“… To analyze the sleep quality among medical students in Al Qunfudhah College of medicine and its effects on their academic performance during COVID-19 pandemic Single Medical School Undergraduate 198 Sleep quality GPA Sleep quality among most of them and negatively affected their academic performance. Fernandez-Altuna et al, 31 2021, Mexico, Cohort. To estimate the statistical difference between the face-to-face assessments in 2019 and the assessments conducted online in 2020 in response to the health emergency by COVID-19, of students enrolled in the first and second year of the UNAM School of Medicine Single Medical School Undergraduate 4737 Assessment in 2019 and 2020 Regular exams score in 16 subjects There is a significant difference obtained in the academic performance of the two school years (2019 face-to-face VS 2020 online) where students in 2020 have a higher graduation rate than students in 2019 Y.H.…”

“…Table 2 shows that 11 out of 24 publication reports on the academic performance before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. All of the studies reported comparative study before and during the COVID-19 pandemic based on learning methods (online methods vs traditional methods) within single medical school setting (n=11), 2 , 24 , 28 , 31–33 , 35–37 , 39 , 40 with cohort as the research design option (n=10). 2 , 28 , 31–33 , 35–37 , 39 , 40 …”

“…Four studies were conducted in Asian continent. 35–37 , 39 Six studies were conducted in America, 2 , 24 , 28 , 31–33 and one study was conducted in Europe. 40 Most studies were conducted in 2021.…”

“…Three studies showed that medical students scored poorly during the COVID-19 pandemic 2 , 35 , 36 and the other three studies stated that students achieved higher grades during the COVID-19 pandemic. 24 , 31 , 39 …”