Cited by 3Innovations in Medical EducationEducational Assessment and PedagogyHealth Education and Validation

Improving the Quality of MCQs by Enhancing Cognitive Level and using Psychometric Analysis

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Rahim, Muhammad Faisal, Qassim Bham, Shireen, Khan, Shahjabeen, Ansari, Tahir, Ahmed, Masood·2023·Pakistan Journal of Health Sciences

Abstract

Faculty development programs are an essential part of any reputable institution. Faculty training through various conferences and workshops will help develop competencies for high quality assessment. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of ongoing faculty training initiatives aimed at improving the standard of MCQ development. Methods: Faculty members of FRPMC were engaged in this observational, quasi-experimental study. Convenient sampling was done. Three different questionnaires were provided to the participants. The participants were tasked with accurately identifying flaws, cognitive levels in the pre- and post-test questionnaire items, as well as post hoc analysis to discard or modify the Items. Results: Items with multiple flaws were assessed with mean value in pre-test score was 1.349 compared to post-test score 3.442 which were statistically significant (p-value <0.05). The pre- and post-test questionnaire to correctly identify the cognitive levels showed pre-test 77.5% compared to 87.5% participants identified correct cognitive level in post-test. In post hoc analysis, participants were able to identify 5 questions out of 7 which need to be discarded and 3 questions out of 5 which needed improvement according to the key given to them. Conclusions: Our study revealed that workshop helped faculty identify item flaws with significant improvement in pre- and post-test scores. The cognitive capabilities of faculty were improved in all three levels of cognition, with greatest improvements shown in higher complexity questions (C3). There was a noticeable improvement in knowledge and the participant's capacity to identify and correct errors.

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  • The questionnaire to subject experts was based on and adapted from the work of Susan and David (2016) and other authors.

    “The questionnaire to the subject experts about item construction and quality was based on and adapted from the work of Susan and David (2016) and other authors [2, 4, 32] (Table 1).”
  • The construction of high-quality MCQs type A has been reported to be difficult and time-consuming.

    “The construction of high-quality MCQs type A has been reported to be difficult and time-consuming [4, 7–9].”

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Pickford JC and Newcomb LH. Relationship of cognitive level of instruction to students' cognitive level of achievement. NACTA Journal. 1989 Jun; 33(2): 56-9.
  2. Khan MU and Aljarallah BM. Evaluation of Modi ed Essay Questions (MEQ) and Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) as a tool for Assessing the Cognitive Skills of Undergraduate Medical Students. International Journal of Health Sciences. 2011 Jan; 5(1): 39-43.
  3. Holzinger A, Lettner S, Steiner-Hofbauer V, Capan Melser M. How to assess? Perceptions and preferences of undergraduate medical students concerning traditional assessment methods. BMC Medical Education. 2020 Sep; 20(1): 312. doi:
  4. Hingorjo MR and Jaleel F. Analysis of one-best MCQs: the di culty index, discrimination index and distractor e ciency. Journal of Pakistan Medical Association. 2012 Feb; 62(2): 142-7.
  5. Gupta P, Meena P, Khan AM, Malhotra RK, Singh T. Effect of faculty training on quality of multiple- choice questions. International Journal of Applied [17]

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Authors
Rahim, M. F., Qassim Bham, S., Khan, S., Ansari, T., & Ahmed, M.
Affiliations
Air University (PK)
Venue
Pakistan Journal of Health Sciences
Published
2023-04-30
Pages
115-121
ISSN
  • 2790-9344 (ISSN-L)
  • 2790-9352
OpenAlex
W4375853313
Cited by
3
References
22
Citations by year
2025: 2 · 2024: 1
FWCI
0.77
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Pakistan Journal of Health Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Greater South Information System
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
  • Social Sciences › Education › Educational Assessment and Pedagogy
  • Social Sciences › Education › Health Education and Validation
Keywords
faculty development, cognitive levels, psychometric assessment, item analysis, post hoc analysis, workshop effectiveness, medical education assessment, university faculty

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