Student Responses to Smart Device-Based Test on Competency Evaluation in Dental Education

Abstract

Purpose: This study was aimed to investigate the possibility of utilizing smart device-based test (SBT) for competency evaluation in dental education and to analyze the student responses on overall competency evaluation using SBT method, in comparison to ubiquitous-based test (UBT). Materials and Methods: Questionnaire surveys have been conducted at Yonsei University College of Dentistry from 2015 to 2018 to obtain students’ feedback on the application of SBT to competency evaluation. In addition, in order to supplement the competency evaluation procedure, considerations were explored by comparing the expected and actual difficulty of each item when preparing items for competency evaluation with SBT. Result: According to the survey results, student responses between the initial two years (2015 and 2016) differed from those in next two years (2017 and 2018). Students in 2017 and 2018 had more positive responses on competency evaluation with SBT. To determine the test validity, criterion-referenced evaluation was adopted to compare the data in 2017 and 2018 and slight differences in test difficulty in 2018 between the expected and actual difficulty of items were found. Conclusion: The results indicated that SBT was more appropriate for competency evaluation than UBT, based on four-year period of competency evaluation. The SBT was not affected by either the file size or the number of test-takers. Interestingly, students were not sensitive to test version of competency evaluation (paper-based test and SBT). This study suggests that the quality of the test items should be measured by continuous monitoring of the expected and actual difficulty of items for determining test validity. More detailed results and discussions of the findings are given for the development of test procedure and further potential research directions in dental education.