A Comparative Study of Formative and Summative Assessment Pattern of Clinical Skills for Undergraduate Students in College of Medicine, Dar Al Uloom University, Riyadh

Abstract

Background: The assessment of medical students is a critical aspect of the medical education system. It should aim to identify whether the student has a sound understanding of the subject, which is essential for him or her to develop into a successful clinician in the future. While summative assessment serves to judge the learning achieved by the student at the end of the course, formative assessment on the other hand forms a part of the developmental or ongoing teaching-learning process by providing guidance and continuous feedback to the students on their performance. Till date, no single method permits high-stake inferences about clinical skills assessment.
Methodology: An online self-created and validated questionnaire through a monkey survey was distributed to all the medical undergraduate students in Dar Al Uloom University (from year 2 till year 5).
Data Analysis Plan: Intergroup comparison (Between group comparisons) was done by student’s t-test and the overall ANOVA by F-test. Intra class correlation was measured by Chronbach’s alpha. Data was analyzed using the SPSS 22.0 software to generate the results required to formulate an appropriate plan to achieve the most benefit from clinical skills sessions for undergraduate students
Results: 168 out of the total 230 students participated in the study and answered the questionnaire. Besides other questions, we asked the students whether they felt their performance of the clinical skills will improve if we conduct summative assessment at the end of block in addition to formative, most of the students agreed 127(75.6%), 37 (22%) were neutral and 4 (2.4%) disagree.
Discussion: 75.6 % students were of the view that a combination of formative and summative methods of assessment in clinical skills will improve their performance which was quite similar to studies by Pauline, Fahad Azam and more.
Conclusion: Both formative and summative methods are essential tools of assessment as they have different advantages. Therefore, the strategy should be, implement both together to assess clinical skills of medical students, as it will minimize student concerns and yield better results.