The assessment of a structured online formative assessment program: a randomised controlled trial

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Educational Technology
• Formative Assessment

Background:

• Online formative assessment is crucial for engaging learners and improving outcomes.
• This study evaluated a two-year investigation into medical students' use of online formative assessment tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of different engagement strategies on medical students' learning outcomes using online formative assessment.
• To compare the efficacy of voluntary versus summative-component-integrated formative assessment.

Main Methods:

• Two cohorts of medical students (Year 1: 129, voluntary use; Year 2: 130, summative elements) participated over two years.
• Pre and post-testing measured learning gains.
• A two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) compared improvement scores between the two groups.

Main Results:

• A significant difference in improvement scores was observed between the two years (19% vs. 38.5%, p < 0.0001).
• Students were more likely to complete assessments with summative components.
• In Year 2, time spent on the tool or number of items completed did not impact improvement.

Conclusions:

• Online formative assessment is a valuable resource for timely feedback and student-centered learning.
• Integrating summative components into formative assessments can enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.
• Careful strategy selection is vital for the efficacy of online learning tools, despite content creation challenges.