The MB BS Curriculum Management III: A Paradigm of basic educational concerns.

Abstract

Introduction:
In the frst two articles on curriculum management the author addressed the planning & the implementation
phases of the medical curriculum. This third & last part of the series will focus on standard-setting of
students’ assessment and two main aspects of evaluation; namely feedback for curriculum development and
feedback for management & development of educational resources.
1. Standard-setting
In the previous section (7), we discussed setting of an examination to address a set of objectives or learning
outcomes. The section also stressed the depth of knowledge to be aimed at for the group of students
concerned. However, this is not enough to set a standard by which pass/fail decisions can be mode. It is
common practice to have a pass standard of 50% or a midpoint of a grade point scale as determined by
regulations.
It cannot be assumed that every examination paper or any other method of students’ assessment will
automatically have a 50% pass mark. A rough method would be to scan the questions and make sure
that at least 50% of the questions aim at “must know” or “must do” learning outcomes. This ensures that
minimum pass level student can be picked out by the examination. More elaborate methods of standardsetting are available; whereby the pass mark is set before the examination is administered. This is referred
to as “criterion - referenced” standard-setting. One of the more commonly used methods is what is known
as the “Angoff method” after its author. This method entails that a group of at least two examiners agree
on the pass mark of each item in an examination. If these marks are added up and the arithmetic mean is
calculated, the result would be the pass mark for the whole paper. The result may be 40% in a diffcult
paper or 60% in a less searching paper. Evidently these marks will have to be rescaled according to grading
system of the institution.