Blackboard-delivered readiness assurance test procedure (20-minute IRAT then 20-minute TRAT in groups of three)¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 8 claims (8 for) · 3 studies (1 causal, 1 associational, 1 design), q2 · 0 of 3 report an effect size · 8 claims rest on one study

Description¶

This element is the readiness assurance test implementation used in a pharmacy calculations laboratory course. Students in groups of 3 first took a 20-minute individual readiness assurance test, then a 20-minute team readiness assurance test whose "question stems that matched those of the IRAT questions", followed by a brief review period for clarification. Assessments ran on the Blackboard learning management system with Respondus Lockdown Browser, faculty/TA proctoring, and paper alternatives for students with technical difficulties. Eight IRAT/TRAT sessions matched the lecture topic sequence and online modules 2 through 9.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Groups of three students; access to Blackboard with Respondus Lockdown Browser or paper alternatives; proctoring by a faculty member and/or graduate teaching assistants

Constraints¶

• Each RAT session contained only 8 problems, described as a fraction of the number on lecture assessments covering identical topics

Target Learners¶

• first-year professional pharmacy program students

Target Learning Goals¶

• pharmacy calculations topics including metric system, dose calculations, expressions of strength, dilution and concentration, and chemical equivalency

Claims¶

• IRAT scores correlate low-to-moderately and significantly with pharmacy calculations lecture assessment scores [+M]
• IRAT performance shows a stronger association with final exam performance than TRAT performance does [+M]
• Neither IRAT nor TRAT distinguishes itself in correlation with module high scores, with isolated significant correlations on difficult topics [+M]
• Students' IRAT scores were consistently poorer than their TRAT scores, suggesting team collaboration benefits team test performance [+W]
• TRAT scores correlate only very low-to-low with lecture assessment scores, with significance limited to a few topics [+M]
• Students perform significantly higher on the team portion of the Readiness Assessment Test than on the individual portion in a TBL laboratory module [+M]
• Dental students in a revised TBL format and medical students in the original format performed similarly on iRAT and tRAT sessions, in a non-randomised comparison of two cohorts [+M]
• In both TBL formats, tRAT and iSAT scores significantly improve over preceding iRAT scores [+M]

Related Elements¶

Examples¶

• Use IRAT as an indicator of subsequent assessment performance and exam-condition practice in pharmacy calculations

Key Sources¶

• Bell, E. C. (2022). Individual Vs. team based readiness assurance testing in pharmacy calculations. International Journal of Instruction, 15(1), 733-746. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2022.15142a