Abdulghani Hamza Mohammad, Ahmad Farah, Irshad Mohammad, Khalil Mahmoud Salah, Al-Shaikh Ghadeer Khalid, Syed Sadiqa, Aldrees Abdulmajeed Abdurrahman, Alrowais Norah, Haque Shafiul
Department of Medical Education, King Saud University, Riyadh-11321, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Obstetrics &Gynecology, King Saud University, Riyadh-11321, Saudi Arabia.
Sci Rep. 2015 Apr 1;5:9556. doi: 10.1038/srep09556.
The aim of this study was to assess the utility of long term faculty development programs (FDPs) in order to improve the quality of multiple choice questions (MCQs) items' writing. This was a quasi-experimental study, conducted with newly joined faculty members. The MCQ items were analyzed for difficulty index, discriminating index, reliability, Bloom's cognitive levels, item writing flaws (IWFs) and MCQs' nonfunctioning distractors (NFDs) based test courses of respiratory, cardiovascular and renal blocks. Significant improvement was found in the difficulty index values of pre- to post-training (p = 0.003). MCQs with moderate difficulty and higher discrimination were found to be more in the post-training tests in all three courses. Easy questions were decreased from 36.7 to 22.5%. Significant improvement was also reported in the discriminating indices from 92.1 to 95.4% after training (p = 0.132). More number of higher cognitive level of Bloom's taxonomy was reported in the post-training test items (p<0.0001). Also, NFDs and IWFs were reported less in the post-training items (p<0.02). The MCQs written by the faculties without participating in FDPs are usually of low quality. This study suggests that newly joined faculties need active participation in FDPs as these programs are supportive in improving the quality of MCQs' items writing.
本研究的目的是评估长期教师发展项目（FDPs）在提高多项选择题（MCQs）命题质量方面的效用。这是一项针对新入职教师开展的准实验研究。基于呼吸、心血管和肾脏模块的测试课程，对MCQs的难度指数、区分指数、信度、布鲁姆认知水平、命题缺陷（IWFs）和MCQs的无效选项（NFDs）进行了分析。结果发现，培训前后的难度指数值有显著改善（p = 0.003）。在所有三门课程的培训后测试中，中等难度和区分度较高的MCQs更多。简单题从36.7%降至22.5%。培训后区分指数也有显著改善，从92.1%提高到95.4%（p = 0.132）。培训后测试题中布鲁姆分类法中更高认知水平的题目数量更多（p<0.0001）。此外，培训后题目的NFDs和IWFs也更少（p<0.02）。未参加FDPs的教师所命制的MCQs质量通常较低。本研究表明，新入职教师需要积极参与FDPs，因为这些项目有助于提高MCQs的命题质量。
