IMPLEMENTATION OF A MULTIDISCIPLINARY STRATEGY FOR CONTINUOUS FORMATIVE EVALUATION USING ON-LINE TOOLS

Background - Introduction:
Multiple-choice questionnaires are usually referred to as ‘objective tests’. They include a certain number of questions (items), which contain a correct answer (key) and some incorrect responses (distracters), having 4 or 5 options in total as a usual design. Objective tests constitute an essential tool to face a continuous evaluation process, especially in those situations in which the big number of students make unviable a personalized evaluation with a direct contact between the teacher and the student. Continuous evaluation of the competences of the students in the field of a certain matter is nowadays essential in the frame of the new teaching strategies in the European Educational Area for the assessment of Students Learning.
KAHOOT is a game-based classroom response system and educational platform that permits the teacher to launch a multiple-choice questions set for continuous evaluation and to introduce a subject and formative assessment. A set of questions can be projected at the front of the classroom, and played by the whole class together in real-time, answering on their own personal device.

Objective:
The main aim of the present study was to implement a method to design and improve a tool for the continuous evaluation of the students based on the use of multiple-choice test with an educational platform to perform tests on-line in the classroom using their own mobile devices. It is also an important objective to improve the designed tests trough an analysis of the items in terms of bi-serial punctual correlation using the Cronbach’s alpha to elucidate the reliability of the designed test.

Material and Methods:
The above-described evaluation strategy was implemented in different subjects corresponding to different studies in the field of Health Sciences: Degree on Pharmacy, Degree on Food Science and Technology and Degree on Human Nutrition and Dietetics.
On-line KAHOOT platform was used to design and perform multiple-choice tests that the students could mark in a few minutes using their own mobile devices. The resulting marks were commented during the test to establish a discussion about each item. The global results of each test was downloaded by the teacher and evaluated in terms of reliability using a software developed by the Dep. of Methods of Research and Diagnosis in Education from the Complutense University: CORRECTOR, that is a software that acts as a MS-Excel Complement.

Results:
It was found that the use of KAHOOT on-line platform provided a promising tool used efficiently in different subjects within three different Degrees (Pharmacy, Food Science and Technology and Human Nutrition and Dietetics) for continuous evaluation of the students. CORRECTOR software provided a successful integration with the reports produced by KAHOOT using the format of a spreadsheet for each quiz.
An important drawback of the use of KAHOOT tests is based on the fact that it requires a stable and excellent WiFi network, and/or cellular reception to run properly. In this way, a problem was detected with the 3G or 4G coverage of the devices of some students, what made difficult the launch of the test in some classrooms.

Nevertheless, we are able to conclude that the methodology here proposed, not only constitute a promising tool to establish an agile continuous evaluation system for big groups of students, but also motivates them to look for a correct answer and to discuss about the proposed subject.