Anatomy is important for health-related majors. Therefore, a solid anatomy background is required. Previous studies have investigated the role of quizzing on exam performance; however, these studies do not analyze large enrollment undergraduate gross anatomy courses. Additionally, many of these studies do not account for individual student academic ability. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of various formats and modes of quizzing in a large enrollment gross anatomy course and explores the influence of academic year and declared major on quiz performance.
This study evaluated the effectiveness of online and two formats of in-class quizzing on exam performance by collecting data, which included exam score, quiz score, academic year, declared major, quarter of enrollment in Anatomy 199, and ACT or SAT score. The impact of academic year and major on exam performance was also analyzed during this study. To investigate the effects of the aforementioned parameters, data was analyzed utilizing univariate general linear model with parameter estimates.
Results indicated that quiz score was related to exam score. More specifically, with all other variables remaining constant, a one unit increase in quiz score was likely to produce a 2.278, 1.815, 2.462, and 2.055 point increase in Exam 1, 2, 3, and 4 scores, respectively. Also, during Exams 3 and 4, students, who were administered in-class quizzes, outperformed those who received online quizzes on the associated exam. Also, during Exams 1 and 2, students who received fill-in-the-blank, in-class quizzes also outperformed those who completed multiple-choice, in-class quizzes. Effects of year on quiz score were noted during this investigation. Results indicate that freshmen will underperform in comparison to senior students on quizzes and exams. On the other hand, only one major consistently had significant impact on quiz or exam score, nursing (p<0.05). Nursing students outperformed all other majors on seven of the eight assessments.
The results listed above provide undergraduate gross anatomy instructors the ability to create courses, which will allow students to obtain higher academic achievement within the course and hopefully retain the most anatomical information possible. Instructors will be able to modify their course to suit the demographics of their students. For example, if there are a high percentage of freshmen in the course, instructors may review study or learning techniques, which are useful in anatomy. Future research may allow for a fuller understanding of the effects quiz format has on exam, and with the use of post-hoc analyses, the significances between groups. Also, with a larger sample size, interaction effects should also be explored. All in all, in this study, the identification of a superior method of quizzing was not possible, but future research with additional analyses could allow for this identification.