Virtual OSCE: Experience and challenges with a large cohort of pharmacy students

Abstract

In response to the inability to conduct conventional face-to-face objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) due to the COVID-19 lockdown, this study explored options to design virtual OSCE (vOSCE) that meets the objectives and standards of effective competency-based assessment for a large cohort of pharmacy students. The vOSCE required advanced planning of the actual assessment and technical conduct. The development of a master plan consisting of the types of competencies to test, topics and number of cases, and assessment rubrics, guided the team members to develop an adequate OSCE assessment module. Technical aspects included recruitment of examiners, simulated patients (SP), technical support, and a platform for vOSCE. The main challenges were to ensure well-ordered vOSCE and a stable internet connection for examiners, SP, and students. Google Meet was utilised due to its functionality, familiarity, and low internet consumption to all parties involved. Feedback was obtained from stakeholders to improve future OSCE conduct.

Are we ready yet for digital transformation? Virtual versus on-campus OSCE as assessment tools in pharmacy education. A randomized controlled head-to-head comparative assessment

“…Additionally, our study found that OC-OSCE appropriately assessed communication skills, professionalism, and attitudes compared to the V-OSCE. This finding is in parallel with the findings of other studies (Branch, 2014, Zulkifly et al, 2022 , Ganesananthan et al, 2021 ). In all these studies, students preferred the OC-OSCE as a better communication tool with the patient as well as the examiner.…”

“…Online teaching was a kind of shift that many pharmacy and medical schools targeted worldwide, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic ( Mak et al, 2022 , Prettyman et al, 2018 , Lim et al, 2020 ). V-OSCE has been discussed by several studies concerning medical and pharmacy students and was found to be a reasonable solution that relatively retains the same ability to assess various clinical skills and clinical reasoning, history-taking, and formulating management plans and differential diagnoses as compared to the conventional OC-OSCE ( Grover et al, 2022 , Lim et al, 2020 , Zulkifly et al, 2022 ). Moreover, few studies discussed the advantages of V-OSCE over the on-campus format that include but are not limited to: reduction in travelling time, undertaking the exam in a comfortable environment, and the potential of scaling-up with smoother logistics ( Grover et al, 2022 , Dost et al, 2020 , Blythe et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Other studies either described how they implemented a V-OSCE assessment ( Zulkifly et al, 2022 ) , or measured students’ perception and/ or performance on V-OSCE assessment ( Grover et al, 2022 , Lim et al, 2020 , Mak et al, 2022 ). For example, ( Grover et al, 2022 ) assessed the utility of virtual OSCE sessions as an educational tool in a national pilot study conducted among several universities in the UK.…”

“…The V-OSCE can be developed to cover all these aspects in the new era of digital transformation. So far, all the research that studied the V-OSCE maximized the use of many developed options in the virtual platforms that could mimic the conventional OSCE, such as the breakout rooms in MS-teams as virtual stations that mimic the OSCE conventional stations, the lock-down browser use for the integrity of the virtual setting, mimicking the invigilators in the conventional OSCE, and the Google-Meet used as a waiting room, mimicking the class room as a waiting room in the conventional setting ( Grover et al, 2022 , Lim et al, 2020 , Prettyman et al, 2018 , Mak et al, 2022 , Zulkifly et al, 2022 ). All these digital platforms aid in the conduction of virtual OSCE.…”

Feasibility of large-scale eOSCES: the simultaneous evaluation of 500 medical students during a mock examination

“…In this time-constrained context of clinical-skill training and assessment, the development of innovative digital strategies to pursue high-quality medical education while ensuring social distancing has been a key goal of many medical and other health schools[ 6 ]. Although several online OSCE (eOSCEs) experiences have been reported to be using a computer-based program [ 7 ] or generic teleconference systems [ 8 , 9 ], Zoom teleconferencing has been more widely used during the pandemic either for lectures[ 10 ], tutoring sessions, or for eOSCEs [ 4 , 11 , 12 ]. Many schools acquired a Zoom license, and both students and teachers were familiar with its use.…”