Comparison between Two Assessment Methods; Modified Essay Questions and Multiple Choice Questions

Aims Using the best assessment methods is an important factor in educational developmentof health students. Modified essay questions and multiple choice questions are two prevalentmethods of assessing the students. The aim of this study was to compare two methods ofmodified essay questions and multiple choice questions in occupational health engineeringand work laws courses.Materials & Methods This semi-experimental study was performed during 2013 to 2014on occupational health students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. The class ofoccupational health and work laws course in 2013 was considered as group A and the classof 2014 as group B. Each group had 50 students.The group A students were assessed bymodified essay questions method and the group B by multiple choice questions method.Datawere analyzed in SPSS 16 software by paired T test and odd’s ratio.Findings The mean grade of occupational health and work laws course was 18.68±0.91 ingroup A (modified essay questions) and was 18.78±0.86 in group B (multiple choice questions)which was not significantly different (t=-0.41; p=0.684). The mean grade of chemical chapter(p<0.001) in occupational health engineering and harmful work law (p<0.001) and other(p=0.015) chapters in work laws were significantly different between two groups.Conclusion Modified essay questions and multiple choice questions methods have nearly thesame student assessing value for the occupational health engineering and work laws course.

کلیدواژه ها:

Examination Questions ، Occupational health ، Legislation as Topic