Assessment of factual recall and higher-order cognitive domains in an open-book medical school examination

• DOI: 10.1007/s10459-021-10076-5
• Publication Date: 2021-10-23T06:02:43Z
• Authors: D. J. Davies; P. F. McLean; P. R. Kemp; A. D. Liddle; M. J. Morrell; O. Halse; N. M. Martin; A. H. Sam
• Keywords: Medical education; Students, Medical; INFORMATION; Open-book examinations; IMPACT; Scientific Disciplines; 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy; Social Sciences; STUDENTS; 02 engineering and technology; Assessment; MULTIPLE-CHOICE; Article; Education; Cognition; Medical; TASK COMPLEXITY; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; Humans; INTERNET; Education, Scientific Disciplines; Schools, Medical; Schools; Science & Technology; 4. Education; COVID-19; PERFORMANCE; Education & Educational Research; Health Care Sciences & Services; TESTS; SKILLS; BLOOMS TAXONOMY; Educational Measurement; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Medical Informatics

Open-book examinations (OBEs) will likely become increasingly important assessment tools. We investigated how access to open-book resources affected questions testing factual recall, which might be easy look-up, versus higher-order cognitive domains. Few studies have OBEs using modern Internet or as summative assessments. compared performance on an examination conducted a traditional closed-book exam (CBE) in 2019 (N = 320) and remote OBE with free 2020 337) due COVID-19. This summative, end-of-year focused basic science for second-year medical students. categorized by Bloom's taxonomy ('Remember', 'Understand/Apply'). predicted higher the OBE, driven 'Remember' questions. used item-centric analysis per item over all examinees outcome variable logistic regression, terms 'Open-Book, 'Bloom Category' their interaction. Performance was than CBE (OR 2.2, 95% CI: 2.14-2.39), 'Understand/Apply' 1.13, 1.09-1.19). The difference between greater ('Open-Book' * interaction: OR 1.2, 1.19-1.37). Access had effect recall questions, though overall. design must consider searching information affects performance, particularly measuring different domains of knowledge.