Assessing Faculty Preference Regarding Online Tools for Assessment in Medical Education: A Cross-Sectional Multi-Center Study

Purpose: E-assessment is a novel practice in developing countries; hence it is essential to determine the online platforms and tools preferred by health sciences education faculty for online assessment. The purpose of this study was to assess the preference of faculty in medical and dental education regarding the online tools for e-assessment of undergraduate students. Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted from June until August 2020 on the faculty of medical and dental undergraduate programs of private and public sector institutes across Karachi, with a sample size of 152. Data was collected through convenience sampling using a validated questionnaire and was analyzed using SPSS version 23. Mean and standard deviation was calculated for numerical data while frequencies and percentages analyzed for categorical data. Results: A total of 125 faculty members participated in the study, having mean age of 37.8±9.99 years, with the majority affiliated with medical program (78%), working in private institutes (58.4%), and teaching basic sciences (64%). Faculty of both basic and clinical sciences preferred Question and Answer (Zoom) for formative assessment (37.6% and 20.8% respectively). Although most faculty were found to not use any online tool for summative assessment, nonetheless, Socrative was preferred for this purpose (23.2% basic sciences, 12.8% clinical sciences). Almost 68% of the faculty faced difficulties in conducting e-assessments and reported that their issues were not resolved effectively (48.2%). Conclusion: Formative assessment was found to be preferably conducted by the Question-and-Answer feature of Zoom. Even though most of the faculty reported not utilizing any online tool for conducting summative assessment, it was found that quiz-based platforms were preferred.