Timing and format of new synchronous online assessment : IIUM experience with preclinical medical students

Introduction: The implementation of online assessment in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) is debatable despite Malaysia’s promising e-readiness reported previously. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the Basic Medical Sciences (BMS) Department, Faculty of Medicine, to use iTa’LeEM, IIUM’s Moodle-based learning platform for teaching and assessment. The use of iTa’LeEM Quiz for synchronous online assessment raised various concerns in terms of timing and format of the assessment on student performance. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the association between the timing of the assessment session with student performance and duration to complete. Additionally, we would like to assess the student preference on this new online assessment format. Method: All preclinical medical students completed the exercise in 2 consecutive days, alternating between morning and afternoon session, in phase one and phase two synchronous online assessment. Students sat for two papers of 25 multiple choice questions per paper on each day. The data on student score and duration to complete for each session were retrieved from iTa’LeEM. The preference on assessment format using iTa’LeEM Quiz were then gathered from Year 1 students via Google Form. The association were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0. Results: In general, the students performed better on Day 2 of assessment (p