Effectiveness of training medical faculty of tertiary medical institutions in scenario based item construction and item analysis in state of Punjab, India

Single response scenario based multiple choice questions (SBMCQs) provide description of authentic situation, contextualizes learning and enhances critical approach. A good quality SBMCQs requires expertise to frame. It was observed that the items written by medical experts who were not trained, lacked quality in the constructed item. As the quality of items is a cause of concern for absolute and relative criteria examinations therefore faculty development programs aimed in improving item writing skills have become a need of the hour. Item analysis (statistical analysis) of MCQs is lesser known and under utilized tool in many Indian medical institutions while framing their assessments. The viability of MCQ can be determined by difficulty index, discrimination index, distractor efficiency and functional distractors. Thus designing good quality items and performing its statistical analysis needs an expertise, for which training of medical faculty is a necessity. This educational project was based on the need to train medical faculty to design quality SBMCQs and performing item analysis. Aim: To study effectiveness of training tertiary care medical faculty in designing scenario-based item construction and item analysis. Objectives: 1. To study effectiveness of training medical faculty in framing scenario based MCQs. 2. To study effectiveness of training medical faculty in performing item analysis. Methodology Study design: Prospective, interventional study Participants: All medical teaching faculty entrusted with academics in the institution. Study Population: Teaching medical faculty working in the institution during the year of 2022-2023. Sample size: n-126 Inclusion criteria – medical professionals who gave their consent and participated in capacity building workshops. (n= 126) Exclusion criteria: medical faculty who did not agreed to participate, absent, retired or already trained were excluded. Description of Intervention: Requisite permissions from Director Principal, institutional ethical and research committee. Core committee of 4 faculty members were formed. Sensitization sessions of medical faculty was arranged department wise. 5 capacity building workshops in constructing SBMCQs and performing item analysis were conducted. Pre-test and post-test was administered, along with it feedback questionnaire. Focused group discussions (FGDs) were conducted. Study tool/s: Pre-test and Post test questionnaire, workshop evaluation feedback questionnaire, questionnaire for focused group discussion. Data collection process: Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected by administration of Google form and data was generated on excel sheet. Results: Statistically highly significant results were seen in comparison between pre and post test scores after the workshop. Higher satisfaction index was seen among medical faculty which showed increased learning in framing (93.33%) and increase knowledge (92.7%) of SBMCQs. Increased learning about utility (90.3%) and application (92.16%) of item analysis for item validation. Thematic analysis showed that workshops increased knowledge of framing SBMCQs and item analysis. In FGD it was found that workshop helped medical faculty to acquire necessary skills for framing quality items and perform item analysis which improves in-house assessment of their subject. Conclusions: Capacity building workshops helped increased knowledge and learning of medical faculty in designing quality SBMCQs and performing item analysis. This will improve quality of assessment, enhances learning, critical thinking and problem solving abilities among medical undergraduates. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.