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Equal Z standard-setting method to estimate the minimum number of panelists for a medical school’s objective structured clinical examination in Taiwan: a simulation study
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Ying-Ying Yang, Pin-Hsiang Huang, Ling-Yu Yang, Chia-Chang Huang, Chih-Wei Liu, Shiau-Shian Huang, Chen-Huan Chen, Fa-Yauh Lee, Shou-Yen Kao, Boaz Shulruf
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J Educ Eval Health Prof. 2022;19:27. Published online October 17, 2022
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2022.19.27
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Abstract
PDFSupplementary Material
- Purpose
Undertaking a standard-setting exercise is a common method for setting pass/fail cut scores for high-stakes examinations. The recently introduced equal Z standard-setting method (EZ method) has been found to be a valid and effective alternative for the commonly used Angoff and Hofstee methods and their variants. The current study aims to estimate the minimum number of panelists required for obtaining acceptable and reliable cut scores using the EZ method.
Methods The primary data were extracted from 31 panelists who used the EZ method for setting cut scores for a 12-station of medical school’s final objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in Taiwan. For this study, a new data set composed of 1,000 random samples of different panel sizes, ranging from 5 to 25 panelists, was established and analyzed. Analysis of variance was performed to measure the differences in the cut scores set by the sampled groups, across all sizes within each station.
Results On average, a panel of 10 experts or more yielded cut scores with confidence more than or equal to 90% and 15 experts yielded cut scores with confidence more than or equal to 95%. No significant differences in cut scores associated with panel size were identified for panels of 5 or more experts.
Conclusion The EZ method was found to be valid and feasible. Less than an hour was required for 12 panelists to assess 12 OSCE stations. Calculating the cut scores required only basic statistical skills.
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