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Applying Progress Testing to Undergraduate Periodontal Courses-A First Evaluation After 2 Years of Use in a German
Anna Louisa Kollster1, Miriam Cyris1, Jonas Conrad1
1Clinic of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany.
Background:
The Progress Test in Periodontology (PTP) has been implemented at Kiel University to gain an impression of students' learning process in this specific subdiscipline of periodontology within the dental curriculum.
Methods:
The PTP has been designed following internationally established standards and has been adapted into the context of periodontology. From July 2020 to February 2022, it has been applied to undergraduate students. The PTP consists of 30 single-best answer questions including an 'I don't know' option, drawn from a newly created question bank and weighted by an adapted blueprint. Descriptive analysis and statistics to test validity and reliability have been performed.
Results:
The mean score shows a significant growth over the semesters (42.4% ± 11.7% after the first semester, 61.5% ± 13.8% after the second semester, 76.9% ± 12.8% after the third semester, 69.9% ± 12.7% after the fifth semester). Reliability expressed by Cronbach's α ranges from 0.646 to 0.798. The 'I don't know' option has mainly been used by first semester students.
Conclusion:
Within the limitations of the study, the PTP is a valid and reliable tool to evaluate students' gain of knowledge, even if it is limited to one subject within a curriculum. Due to pandemic restrictions several other challenges in the adaptation of the test format to the educational setting at a German university had to be solved.
