Abstract:

Laboratory practices are fundamental in any science subject and therefore several methodologies are currently being addressed to facilitate the acquisition and assessment of skills. Since its first description in the 1980s, Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) has been gradually implemented to improve the assessment and the learning of practical skills in laboratory practices. During the 15-16 academic year, our research group implemented for the 1st time the OSPE methodology in laboratory practices. This work describes the preliminary results of students and teachers’ perception when using this methodology in 6 different subjects during the 1st semester of the 19-20 academic year in degrees of Pharmacy and Biotechnology. Differences in student perception were evaluated according to the academic year, degree and previous experience with the methodology. In order to analyze the student´s perception and to improve the quality of the experience, students answered an anonymous questionnaire consisting of 14 different Likert-type questions (answers score from 1 to 5; 1 = totally disagree and 5 = totally agree) and 3 open-ended questions. Furthermore, the teacher's perception was evaluated by anonymous questionnaires consisting in 8 Likert type questions and 2 open-ended questions. Finally, the impact on academic results was studied comparing academic marks using this methodology (OSPE cohort) to the traditional assessment (no OSPE cohort). The study involved 6 teachers and 168 students. The quantitative analysis results showed that the student perception of this methodology was highly satisfactory. 63% of the students agreed or strongly agreed that the OSPE session reflected the skills acquired in the laboratory. When comparing the item “the final evaluation session is a good method of assessing the laboratory skills” in different years, 49% of the 1st year students, 56% of the 2nd year students and 79 % of the 3rd year students did agree or totally agree. As deduced, lowest satisfaction results were obtained in first year courses, as well as in students that have not been evaluated by the OSPE methodology in previous years. In general, the results of student’s perception were slightly better for Biotechnology students than infor Pharmacy students. The quantitative analysis results of teacher´s perception showed high satisfaction with the OSPE methodology. Percentages in teacher´s questionnaire were higher than 83% of totally agree in all items. In relation to the impact on learning, the grades obtained in laboratory at the OSPE cohort students versus non-OSPE cohort students indicated a higher pass rate and higher marks when practical laboratory abilities were evaluated with OSPE methodology. These results showed that OSPE is a promising active methodology to evaluate the practical skills acquired in the laboratory practices. Students and teachers recognized that OSPE enhance the specific practical skills and improve the attitude and motivation during practical sessions. OSPE is easily applicable to the laboratory practices of different subjects, carefully choosing the practical skills to evaluate and the appropriate objective indicators.

Keywords:

OSPE, assessment, laboratory skills, perception, performance.