Kharaba Zelal, AlAhmad Mohammad M, Ahmed Elnour Asim, Abou Hajal Abdallah, Abumweis Suhad, Ghattas Mohammad A
College of Pharmacy, Al Ain University, 64141 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
AAU Health and Biomedical Research Center, Al Ain University, 64141 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Pharm J. 2023 Mar;31(3):359-369. doi: 10.1016/j.jsps.2023.01.004. Epub 2023 Jan 25.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has influenced pharmacy education including learning, assessment, and exams. In the UAE, pharmacy instructors have adapted several innovative teaching methods to strive for quality learning outcomes. The current trial presented a head-to-head comparative assessment between on-campus versus virtual Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) with examiners' and students' perspectives.
The main aim was to compare fourth-year students' and examiners' perceptions of the feasibility (time and logistics), stress, performance, and satisfaction between on-campus versus virtual OSCE.
A randomized controlled head-to-head comparative assessment between the On-campus and virtual OSCE was conducted to explore performance and satisfaction of pharmacy students and examiners towards the two OSCE settings. The virtual OSCE was carried out directly after the on-campus -OSCE and the setting was designed in a way that aligned with the on-campus OSCE but in a virtual way. Microsoft Teams® breakout room was used as a virtual stations. Respondus-lockdown-browse and Google Meet® were used for proctoring purposes.
Students who sat for the on-campus assessment were more satisfied with the instructions, the orientation session, the time management, and the overall exam setting, the ability of the exam to assess their communication and clinical skills, professionalism and attitude, and the interactivity of the exam compared to the students who sat for the virtual assessment. Examiners' perceptions for both settings were the same with the exception of interaction with students (p less than 0.05) as the on-campus OSCE was more interactive.
Students still prefer the on-campus OSCE to the virtual OSCE format in many aspects. Nevertheless, virtual OSCE is still a feasible and satisfactory method of assessment when on-campus OSCE is not possible. There is a need of a specialized platform to conduct the virtual OSCE from A to Z rather than maximizing the use of options in the current digital platforms.
全球新冠疫情影响了药学教育，包括学习、评估和考试。在阿联酋，药学教师采用了多种创新教学方法以争取高质量的学习成果。当前的试验从考官和学生的角度，对校内客观结构化临床考试（OSCE）与虚拟OSCE进行了直接比较评估。
主要目的是比较四年级学生和考官对校内与虚拟OSCE在可行性（时间和后勤）、压力、表现和满意度方面的看法。
对校内和虚拟OSCE进行了随机对照直接比较评估，以探究药学专业学生和考官对两种OSCE设置的表现和满意度。虚拟OSCE在校内OSCE之后直接进行，其设置方式与校内OSCE一致，但以虚拟方式进行。微软团队®分组会议室用作虚拟站点。Respondus锁定浏览器和谷歌Meet®用于监考。
与参加虚拟评估的学生相比，参加校内评估的学生对指导、介绍环节、时间管理和整体考试设置、考试评估其沟通和临床技能的能力、专业精神和态度以及考试的互动性更满意。除了与学生的互动（p小于0.05），因为校内OSCE互动性更强，考官对两种设置的看法相同。
在许多方面，学生仍然更喜欢校内OSCE而非虚拟OSCE形式。然而，当无法进行校内OSCE时，虚拟OSCE仍然是一种可行且令人满意的评估方法。需要一个专门的平台来从头到尾进行虚拟OSCE，而不是在当前数字平台中最大限度地利用现有选项。
