COMPUTER BASED TESTING, QUESTION BANKING AND MODULE
CREATION AT THE
Justin Stone*,
University of
PURPOSE: Several
online applications have been developed by the Office of Consultation and
Research in Medical Education (OCRME) at the University of
Iowa Carver College of Medicine (UICCOM) to help faculty not only deliver
content and multimedia rich online examinations and self directed learning
modules, but to assist in the development and production of this content as
well. This abstract describes these applications, their uses and integration
into UICCOM curriculum.
METHODS: These
applications have been in use for the last two years in courses and clerkships
in the CCOM. For examination or quiz creation, faculty can either build exams
themselves or work with an OCRME representative using an application called
ItemBanker (IB). ItemBanker is an online database application that allows
faculty to store exam questions, with multimedia, indefinitely as well as track
question statistics, once questions has been administered, over time. For
learning module or quiz creation, the same process can be used with a piece of
software called ModuleMaker (MM) which allows faculty to create multimedia rich
learning modules without knowing anything about how to create online content.
Faculty must only know how to use a web browser to create modules for students.
To view an online examination or module created with either IB or MM, students
or faculty use another application called ModuleViewer (MV). One alternative
method of testing using our MV software utilizes our SuperList formatted
questions where students view an image, then must search a master list of terms
for the correct answer.
RESULTS: Over
the past 2 years, around 10,000 exams or module administrations have been
recorded using this suite of applications. For examinations for large amounts
of students, an auditorium is used with 170+ laptops to administer the online
examination to students all at once. Other examinations and modules are given
on a 24 hour a day / 7 day a week basis allowing
students to study or take exams at their leisure.
CONCLUSIONS: The use of online testing and learning using a variety of multimedia is
supplementing student learning in a way that provides them different paths to
learning as well as providing faculty members
alternative ways to test the level of competency among their students. This
method of instruction also prepares students for future online examinations and
information gather that they will face in the future.