Written Assessment in Medical Education

178 Pages·2023·5.238 MB·English

by  Hosam Eldeen Elsadig Gasmalla, Alaa AbuElgasim Mohamed Ibrahim, Majed M. Wadi, Mohamed H. Taha

Hosam Eldeen Elsadig Gasmalla ·
Alaa AbuElgasim Mohamed Ibrahim ·
Majed M. Wadi · Mohamed H. Taha   Editors
Written
Assessment
in Medical
Education
Written Assessment in Medical Education
Hosam Eldeen Elsadig Gasmalla
Alaa AbuElgasim Mohamed Ibrahim
Majed M. Wadi • Mohamed H. Taha
Editors
Written Assessment in
Medical Education
Editors
Hosam Eldeen Elsadig Gasmalla Alaa AbuElgasim Mohamed Ibrahim
University of Warwick College of Oral and Dental Medicine
Coventry, United Kingdom Karary University
Khartoum, Sudan
Al-Neelain University
Khartoum, Sudan Educational Development Center
Sudan Medical Spacialization Board
Majed M. Wadi Khartoum, Sudan
Medical Education Department College of
Medicine Mohamed H. Taha
Qassim University College of Medicine and Medical Education
Buraidah, Saudi Arabia Centre University of Sharjah
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
ISBN 978-3-031-11751-0 ISBN 978-3-031-11752-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11752-7
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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Preface
Assessment lies at the heart of any educational process. For education in medical
and health professions, assessment is extremely important since the decision taken
after assessment affects the lives of people. From this notion, assessment should be
robust and credentialed. The assessment should be tailored to appraise the level of
medical graduate competencies, who will offer healthcare to patients and serve the
health system. It must clearly state and support the criteria for their certification.
Over the last four decades, health professions schools, postgraduate residency
programs, and licensing agencies have all expanded their efforts to provide accu-
rate, reliable, and timely assessments of students, trainees, and practicing physi-
cians’ competencies. The three major purposes of such assessments are to maximize
the capacities of all learners and practitioners by giving incentives and guidance for
future learning, to safeguard the public by detecting incompetent physicians, and to
offer a framework for selecting advanced training applicants.
Despite the availability of many educational resources, faculty development pro-
grams, the emergence of new global challenges and the fourth industrial revolution,
and the COVID-19 pandemic, which created a new normal, topics of assessment
continue to be challenging for faculty, particularly novices. Therefore, the purpose
of this book is to provide readers with an understanding of the fundamentals of writ-
ten assessment and to provide a simple guide for daily use by a medical educator.
We merely focused on written assessment since written assessment topics continue
to be highly in demand by faculty members, who frequently request and participate
in numerous training activities under this umbrella. This book does not overwhelm
the reader with an abundance of educational theory; rather, it serves the needs of
medical educators in a straightforward and uncomplicated manner.
In writing this book, we used a simplified description of the theory, followed by
practical tips and examples from daily practice in health professions education
schools, as well as practical exercises. Finally, each chapter ends with a take-home
message. The book is organized into 14 chapters.
Chapter 1 introduces basic assessment concepts, highlighting the various types
of assessment methods, as well as the criteria that define a good assessment. The
second chapter sheds light on assessing learning outcomes using various theoretical
v
vi Preface
foundations such as Miller’s pyramid and Bloom’s taxonomy. Chapter 3 provides a
step-by-step guide for designing and developing a test blueprint. It also includes
several examples of various blueprints. Chapter 4 goes over the various formats of
constructed response items, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to construct
them. Chapter 5 explains the concept of key-feature questions (KFQs), their struc-
ture, and evidence to support their validity. Chapter 6 focuses on the development of
A-type MCQs that go beyond assessing recall to assessing high levels of the cogni-
tive domain, with extensive use of examples. Chapter 7 explains R-type questions
and describes their structure and how to construct high-quality R-Type MCQs.
Chapter 8 aims at introducing readers to the Script Concordance Test and its psy-
chometric properties, as well as its use in medical education. Chapter 9 aims to
introduce readers to the statistical methods used in exam evaluation through simple
and descriptive examples. Chapter 10 sheds light on the standard-setting process
and discusses relevant methods used in written exams. The importance of online
assessment as an emerging strategy for evaluating and monitoring students’ achieve-
ment in e-learning is highlighted in Chap. 11. Chapter 12 introduces the readers to
progress testing in written assessment, including the rationale for the test, how to
run it, and how to evaluate it. Chapter 13 discusses the fundamental principles of
programmatic assessment as well as the conceptual and theoretical frameworks that
support it. Chapter 14 focuses on social accountability SA in the written assessment
and how to integrate SA values into assessment practice.
We believe that the book will serve educators in medical and health professions
in planning, designing, and implementing different assessment activities within
their context.
We are especially grateful to all our authors, who took time out of their hectic
professional schedules to make an outstanding contribution to book chapters.
Finally, we would like to thank our families for their patience with our numerous
distractions during the lengthy timeline required to complete this book.
Coventry, United Kingdom Hosam Eldeen Elsadig Gasmalla
Khartoum, Sudan Alaa AbuElgasim Mohamed Ibrahim
Buraidah, Saudi Arabia Majed M. Wadi
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Mohamed H. Taha
May 2022
[email protected]
[email protected]
Contents
1 Basic Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Hosam Eldeen Elsadig Gasmalla
2 Assessment of Learning Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Alaa Abuelgasim Mohamed Ibrahim
3 Blueprint in Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Alaa Abuelgasim Mohamed Ibrahim and Hosam Eldeen Elsadig
Gasmalla
4 Constructed Response Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Mohamed H. Taha
5 Key Feature Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff
6 A-Type MCQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Hosam Eldeen Elsadig Gasmalla and Mohamed Elnajid Mustafa
Mohamed Tahir
7 R-Type MCQs (Extended Matching Questions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Hosam Eldeen Elsadig Gasmalla and Mohamed Elnajid Mustafa
Mohamed Tahir
8 Script Concordance Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Nurhanis Syazni Roslan and Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff
9 Introduction to the Psychometric Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Amal Hussein and Hosam Eldeen Elsadig Gasmalla
10 Standard Setting in Written Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Majed M. Wadi
11 Progress Testing in Written Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Mona Hmoud AlSheikh, Ahmad Alamro, and Majed M. Wadi
vii
viii Contents
12 How Written Assessment Fits into the Canvas of Programmatic
Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and Mona Hmoud AlSheikh
13 Assessment: Social Accountability and the Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Mohamed Elhassan Abdalla
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Notes on the Editors
Hosam Eldeen Elsadig Gasmalla, MBBS, MSc, PgDip, MHPE, PhD is Assistant

Professor of Clinical Anatomy and medical education specialist in the Faculty of
Medicine, Al-Neelain University, Sudan, with over 15 years of experience in teach-
ing and research in both clinical anatomy and medical/health professions education
for undergraduates and graduate students. Dr. Hosam Eldeen is specialized in stu-
dents’ assessment, and he teaches learners’ assessment module as part of the mas-
ter’s degree program in health professions education provided by the Sudan Medical
Specialization Board (SMSB). Dr. Hosam Eldeen also has experience in the field of
quality of education. As a founding dean, he established and led the deanship of
quality and education development at Sudan International University (2020–2022).
He is also a member of several international organizations including the Association
for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE). Recently, he moved to the United
Kingdom as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Anatomy at The University of
Warwick.
[email protected]
Alaa Abuelgasim Mohamed Ibrahim, MDDPH, MHPE, MPTH is the dean of

the College of Oral and Dental Medicine at Karary University and Assistant
Professor of Dental Public Health (DPH). Dr. Alaa also serves on the Sudan Medical
Specialization Board (SMSB) as the head of the curriculum and program depart-
ment at the Education Development Center, as the rapporteur of the curriculum high
advice committee, and as the dental public health counsel rapporteur. She contrib-
utes to health professions education (HPE) by serving as the main instructor for the
master’s degree program in HPE at SMSB and the International University of
Africa, facilitating HPE and DPH courses in Sudanese universities for more than
8 years, and designing undergraduate and postgraduate curricula for various health
professional programs for more than 5 years.
Majed Wadi, MBBS, MSc Med Edu is a lecturer in the Medical Education

Department of the College of Medicine, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. Dr.
ix
x Notes on the Editors
Majed has vast expertise with student assessment as he is the coordinator of the
Assessment Unit of the College of Medicine. He is responsible for reviewing and
approving summative assessment items before and after their implementation. In
addition, he is a member of the secretary generals in the Progress Test Committee,
which is responsible for planning and designing and implementing the progress
testing at the levels of Saudi Arabian medical institutions on an annual basis, as well
as a member of the curriculum steering and accreditation committees. His scholarly
works center on student assessment, resilience and well-being, and curriculum
development.
[email protected]
Mohammad H. Taha, MBBS, PG Dip, MSc (HPE), PhD is Assistant Professor

of Medical Education at the University of Sharjah’s Medical Education Centre and
College of Medicine, United Arab Emirates, with over 13 years of medical/health
professions education and educational research experience. He is currently the
director of the Medical Education Centre and the coordinator of the Master of
Leadership in Health Professions Education at the University of Sharjah, as well as
the chair of the College of Medicine’s curriculum committee. Dr. Mohamed
H. Hassan also is a member of several international organizations, such as the
Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) and The Network: Towards
Unity for Health TUFH, and serves as a consultant for various undergraduate and
postgraduate medical curricula in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO
region). Dr. Mohammad H. Taha has authored numerous articles on curriculum
development, social accountability, online learning, students’ and residents’ learn-
ing environment, and residency training.