Idea Density in Exam Performance

NCT05526365 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 22/PBS/004
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 204
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Text can be written in multiple ways to mean the same thing; changing how a text is written can make it easier or harder to understand. How many concepts or ideas there are in a text, divided by the total number of words, is one possible way to determine how easy or hard it is to understand. This ratio is called idea density (ID). Varying ID has been shown to affect the speed at which a reader understands; it impacts certain people more than others, such as second language speakers. This effect may be of particular importance in an exam, where understanding a question in a limited time is key. In the UK, pharmacy students must undertake an exam set by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) to be registered as pharmacists. The exam involves pharmaceutical calculations and shows variable pass rates. This study aims to evaluate the impact of reducing ID in a pharmaceutical calculation test and will be conducted in 14 schools of pharmacy in the UK. All participants will take a GPhC style test. Then, participants will be divided into two groups of equal size; one group will undertake a second test with the same ID as the first, while the second group will undertake a test with a lower ID. Finally, the investigators will compare the second test scores between the two groups as cohorts and question by question, evaluating whether lowering ID has increased students' scores. If and effect is seen, ensuring that questions are written with a controlled ID may help ensure we are examining more fairly and allowing students with the requisite knowledge to pass.

Conditions

Medical Education; Health Education; Educational Assessment

Keywords

Pedagogy; Medical education; Assessment; Linguistics; Idea density

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Overall performance on test 2

  The primary outcome is the performance in the second calculation test 2. Overall score per student can be between 0-12, and performance of all students on each question a decimal percent between 0-1, with 0 meaning 0% of students answered correctly and 1 meaning 100% of students answered correctly.

  1 month

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Pass rate

  1 month

• Demographic

  1 month

Study Arms (2)

Control

NO INTERVENTION

Participants in the control group will receive an initial 12 question baseline test (same as intervention). They will after two weeks receive a second test that is linguistically the same as the national GPhC exam.

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in the intervention group will receive an initial 12 question baseline test (same as control). They will after two weeks receive a second test that is reduced in idea density by around 10% overall.

Other: Reduced Idea Density

Interventions

Reduced Idea Density OTHER

Question idea density reduced (ratio of propositions to total words used).

Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Over 18 years of age
• Registered as a student on an MPharm course in the UK
• Be in years 1-4 of the course (levels 1-7)

You may not qualify if:

• Under 18
• Not registered on an MPharm course in the UK
• Are currently undertaking a foundation year (level 3)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Liverpool John Moores University: lead
• University of Central Lancashire: collaborator
• Aston University: collaborator
• University of Birmingham: collaborator
• University of Bradford: collaborator
• De Montfort University: collaborator
• University of Greenwich: collaborator
• University of Huddersfield: collaborator
• Kingston University: collaborator
• Newcastle University: collaborator
• Queen's University, Belfast: collaborator
• Robert Gordon University: collaborator
• University of Ulster: collaborator
• University of Wolverhampton: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Liverpool John Moores University

Liverpool, Merseyside, L3 3AF, United Kingdom

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Health Education

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Adherence Interventions; Medication Adherence; Patient Compliance; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Treatment Adherence and Compliance; Health Behavior; Behavior

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Masking Details: Students will be blinded to allocation; performed using sequentially generated random numbers. The control and intervention exams will be identical in all but the idea density of the questions. The students are the unit of randomisation and intervention. As the randomisation will be 1:1, the block size multiplier will be 2, 4, 6 and the block size 4, 8, and 12. This approach will reduce bias and balance allocating participants to the treatment arm. Furthermore, the process will adopt block permutation, meaning that treatment assignments within blocks are determined to be random in order but that the desired allocation proportions are achieved exactly within each block. A computerised random number generator will generate the sequence
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy

Model Details: Participants randomised to two arms, control and intervention

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 31, 2022
• First Posted: September 2, 2022
• Study Start: October 3, 2022
• Primary Completion: November 6, 2022
• Study Completion: December 6, 2022
• Last Updated: October 10, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-10

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL
• Time Frame: Within 1 year of study (when published), indefinitely available on university repository

Locations

GB (1)