Voluntary participation in online formative quizzes is a sensitive predictor of student success.

In a previous study (1) of online formative assessment in a medical school, I reported that scores on unsupervised online quizzes were predictive of outcomes on summative examinations. However, when no credit was assigned to the practice quizzes, the student participation rate was disappointing, at 50–60%. The lack of engagement in quizzes was found to be associated with significantly lower performance on the final summative examination. Various attempts to increase participation by providing course points were tried and, not surprisingly, were effective at increasing student use of quizzes. However, with increasing reward, performance on practice quizzes became dissociated from examination scores. More worryingly, there was evidence that some students used questionable methods to achieve the performance criteria that were needed to earn points. The purpose of this article is to describe a successful intervention to boost voluntary participation in online formative assessment without the need to assign credit. The importance of the findings is not only that this can readily be achieved but that nonparticipation in such quizzes is a consistent predictor of poor performance on summative examinations. This study was conducted with 109 undergraduate student participants in a 2-semester upper-level human physiology course. The course is available to students majoring in Biochemistry, Nutrition, Dietetics, or Neuroscience in either the third or fourth year of their respective undergraduate programs. This study received approval from the Memorial University Human Investigations Committee, and study participants provided their informed consent. The evaluation of students was composed of laboratory reports worth 20% of the grade and a series of summative multiple-choice examinations that were collectively worth 80% of the overall grade. In each semester, there were two midterm examinations consisting of 35 items and a final examination of 80 items. Each summative examination was preceded by an online practice quiz of 10–15 questions that closely reflected the style and difficulty of the summative examinations. Quizzes were available for 1 wk before the data were collected. Our intervention consisted of an orientation lecture in which the nature and purpose of formative assessment were described. Students were shown historical data correlating quiz scores with examination scores and also emphasizing that nonparticipation in quizzes may be linked to poor outcomes. Students were then given regular in-class reminders to take quizzes and were encouraged to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. In many cases, there was a followup discussion either online or in the classroom about the quiz items to improve feedback and to keep the quizzes visible. This effort to market and reinforce quiz usage was associated with an average participation rate of 88%. For all six quizzes, there was a moderate but statistically significant correlation between quiz score and the score on the corresponding summative examination (correlation coefficients ranged from 0.26 to 0.56). The most striking finding was that students who participated in the quiz scored, on average, 13% higher on the summative examinations than students who did not participate. Complete data for each individual quiz are shown in Table 1. Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: J. D. Kibble, Univ. of Central Florida, College of Medicine, Medical Education Bldg., 6850 Lake Nona Blvd., Orlando, FL 32827 (e-mail: [email protected]).