Students’ perspectives on the multi-component evaluation system in physiology

Background: Assessment contributes directly to the way students approach their study and therefore contributes indirectly, but powerfully, to the quality of their learning. A well designed assessment programme will use different types of question appropriate for the content being tested.Meaningful interpretation of course evaluation results requires collecting evidence of validity. One of the method employed for gathering evidence of validity involves collecting student feedback about the various components of the evaluation system. In this perspective, this study was conducted to explore student perspectives on multi-component evaluation system in Physiology at Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Camus), India. Methods: Students’ perspectives on different components of evaluation system in Physiology were collected by administering a questionnaire containing 9-12 items. Results and Conclusion: In general, students agreed that our evaluation system is quite fair. However, in some areas there is a lack of consensus amongst students. The results of our study was comparable with the earlier observation that a single assessment tool does not fulfill all the functions of assessment such as assessing knowledge, comprehension and skills, motivation and providing feedback. The multi-component evaluation system allows one to assess numerous elements of the knowledge and competence required of a successful doctor.