Assessing trends for developed INBDE questions: A dental school experience

The aim of this study was to assess trends related to integrated questions created by fourth-year dental students as a part of the Basic Science and Clinical Science Spiral Seminar Series (BaSiCSsss) at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM).

Deidentified BaSiCSsss presentations from 2019 to 2023 were obtained from the Office of Academic Affairs at TUSDM. The integrated questions created by fourth-year dental students were extracted and compiled into an Excel sheet. Following the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations (JCNDE) guidelines for the Integrated National Board Dental Examination (INBDE) question construction, each question was evaluated on 13 distinct categories. The categories consisted of 10 foundational knowledge (FK) and three clinical content (CC) areas. Calibration of the two investigators (Kyle E. Wright and Samar Shaikh) was performed. The chi-square test and Fisher's exact test were used to evaluate trends of FK and CC category representation across the 4 years.

Twelve hundred fifty-six questions were extracted from the BaSiCSsss presentations between academic years 2019 and 2023. CC1 (diagnosis and treatment planning) emerged as the most represented category at 44.2% of the questions while FK2 (physics and chemistry to explain normal biology and pathobiology) had the least representation at 1.1%. Statistically significant year-to-year differences (p < 0.05) were identified in FK1, FK5, FK6, FK8, CC1, and CC2 with FK5, FK6, and CC2 exhibiting a notable downward trend over the 4 years.

The current study highlights the trends in student-created integrated questions. Understanding these trends may aid in curriculum development, focusing on areas with decreasing representation and ensuring a balanced coverage of topics optimizing learning outcomes.