Comparison of students’ performance and attitude between collaboration testing and written examination of ethics course

There is little evidence for the effective assessment of the ethical skills and behaviors of health professional students. Therefore, this study was aimed to compare students’ performance and attitude about ethics exam between collaboration testing and written assessment.

In this Quasi-experimental interventional study, thirty-six fourth-year undergraduate students of physiotherapy and occupational therapy were recruited. The ethical content of the course was educated in the first semester 1400-1401. At the end of the semester, participants took the examination in a two-stage process of a descriptive question based on a clinical case. The first stage was held individually (written examination). Immediately after it, the students in groups of five discussed about the question and final responses were written on the question sheet (collaboration testing). Before beginning the examinations, three student attributes associated to the examinations were assessed using the survey, including self-efficacy, anxiety, and preparedness.

Self-efficacy and preparedness, and testing scores were significantly greater in collaboration testing compared to written examination. In contrast, the anxiety level was significantly lower in the collaboration testing compared to written examination.

The present findings showed better performance and positive attitudes of students about ethics exam using collaboration testing.