Abstract:

Assessment is the key element in the measurement of educational quality, where the characteristics of the assessment (oral, written, face-to-face, virtual, etc.) have a great influence on the motivation and behaviour of students in the teaching-learning process. In this context, there is a great diversity of evaluative tests to achieve different objectives and competences. Therefore, in the academic year 2020-21, we wanted to find out the possible relationship that various variables may have on the academic performance of students in two types of assessment modalities: oral and written. The study was carried out on students of the Human Anatomy (HA) course of the Bachelor's Degree in Nursing at the University of Alicante (UA). To do this, by means of the students' answers to a multiple-choice written test and the oral identification of anatomical structures to assess their knowledge of the subject, we wanted to:
1) to know and compare the student's academic performance in the two assessment methods;
2) to study the possible relationship of intrinsic variables such as age and stress on academic performance;
3) to know the possible influence on academic performance of modifiable variables such as previous experience of the type of exam (test/oral), interest and degree of difficulty in the subject self-perceived by the student and the time dedicated to study.

The student was also asked to answer a short opinion questionnaire during both exams. Our study included 191 students enrolled in the subject of HA, which is taken in the first four-month period of the first year of the Bachelor's Degree in Nursing. Regarding academic performance, our results revealed that 32% of the students passed the written exam with an average mark of 6.43±1.24 while 92.3% passed the oral exam with an average mark of 7.79±1.31 (P<0.05). When analysing the opinion questionnaire, we found a statistically significant negative correlation between "academic performance" and the student's "self-perceived stress" during the evaluation tests, with values of -0.294 and -0.345, and the” perceived stress at the end of the tests”, with values of -0.175 and -0.356, in the written and oral exams, respectively (P<0.05). Academic performance also reflected a negative correlation at -0.285 with student age (P<0.05). However, positive values of significant correlation (P<0.05) at 0.195 between written exam "grades" and "time spent studying" were found. Similarly, the variables "student's self-perception of the result" and "grades" revealed positive correlation values: 0.195 in the written exam and 0.747 in the oral exam. Interestingly, positive correlation values were found between the variable "study time" and "self-perceived stress level" before the written and oral exam, with values of 0.211 and 0.179 respectively, as well as the negative correlation with "previous experience" in the oral exam, -0.164 (P<0.05).

Regarding the responses to the opinion questionnaire, 81% of the students stated that they had taken none or at most 5 oral examinations in their lifetime, reflected in a negative correlation of -0.197 with "self-perceived stress" during the oral examination. Our results suggest that high levels of stress during the assessment tests show a negative effect on the grades obtained. Modifiable variables such as "time spent studying" and "previous experience" in the type of assessment tests also show influence on the level of stress with which the student faces the exams.

Keywords:

Oral assessment, written assessment, marks, stress, nursing.