Title 

Perception of Students towards Structured Oral Examination (SOE) in comparison with Conventional Oral Examination (COE) in Forensic Medicine & Toxicology.

Authors 

Pramod Kumar GN, Adkoli BV, Roopa Urs AN, Dhritiman Nath, Ananthakrishnan N, Satish Kumar, Shankar M Bakkannavar.

Abstract 

Background: Oral examination is a part of formative and summative assessment in medical education. Conventional oral examination in university examinations is criticized for being subjective, and often whimsical. We conducted a study to assess the relative efficacy of Conventional Oral Examination (COE) versus Structured Oral Examination (SOE). Method: From the batch of second year MBBS students studying Forensic Medicine in 4th Semester, 60 students were chosen for the study. They were subjected to COE and SOE. Detailed feedback was obtained through specially designed five point Likert Scale to assess their perception. The data was collected and analysed using SPSS software version 2012. P value was calculated using Chi square test. Results: Majority of students came out in favour of SOE against COE. The main reasons cited were uniform allotment of time (96.7%), less variability in the difficulty level, at the same time, greater coverage of content. Most participants (93.3%) agreed that SOE was well organized system. Conclusion: Structured viva was perceived as more effective tool for formative assessment which can also be extended to summative assessment with adequate planning and logistics.

 Keywords

Summative assessment, Conventional Oral Examination, Structured viva.

 DOI