Remediation of Muddy Concepts in Chemical Pathology Enhances Medical Students’ Summative Performance

A pilot three-week Chemical Pathology (CP) remediation online programme targeted muddy concepts to support medical students preparing for supplementary examination. Online teaching tools incorporated discussion groups, short-narrated lectures, and quizzes. Student online programme engagement, and formative and summative performance (categorised by Bloom’s Taxonomy’s cognitive domain) were analysed by descriptive statistics. Results showed all students accessed online content and engaged with formative assessments. Test items examined factual and conceptual knowledge in CP, Clinical Sciences and Basic Sciences. Students’ pre-remediation formative assessment scores showed better performance on multiple-choice test questions which examined lower cognitive domains than short-answer questions embedded in case vignettes. Scores on the post-remediation summative performance identified higher total mean scores and pass rates across most CP topics; however, students still obtained lower scores on case vignettes items. Online remediation helps students engage effectively and improves overall pass rates but challenges their higher-order thinking in CP examined by clinical vignettes.