Objective-Based Assessment

Introduction & rationale

Assessment is one of the most important determinants of student learning. Teachers communicate to learners their values, priorities and expectations through assessment. It is an essential component of the educational process. It provides evidence of how well the declared learning outcomes have been achieved and how effectively the teaching standards are being maintained. It provides subjective as well as objective measures with qualitative and quantitative approaches (Reynolds et al., 2010).

Assessment of learners’ competence requires careful planning. Well planned, objective-oriented assessment can ensure quality and strength in medical education. The assessment should be standardized, well structured, and directed to judge the cognition, psychomotor skills and attitude of learners. Assessment criteria for send up examination for first year BDS students of Oral Biology and Tooth Morphology is based on principles of assessment like validity, reliability, utility, feasibility, acceptability, educational impact, and objectivity of assessment tools selected. For this purpose, different types of assessment tools are selected such as written examination, performance based examination, oral examination, class presentation, assignments, tasks etc. These assessment tools serve the following major functions:

1. To evaluate the learners and assess whether they are learning what is expected of them

2. To motivate learners to structure their academic efforts