Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Abstract BACKGROUND: Education and assessment have changed during the COVID‑19 pandemic so that
online courses replaced face‑to‑face classes to observe the social distance. The quality of online
assessments conducted during the pandemic is an important subject to be addressed. In this study,
the quality of online assessments held in two consecutive semesters was investigated.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: One thousand two hundred and sixty‑nine multiple‑choice online
examinations held in the first (n = 535) and second (n = 734) semesters in Birjand University of
Medical Sciences during 2020–2021 were examined. Mean, standard deviation, number of questions,
skewness, kurtosis, difficulty, and discrimination index of tests were calculated. Data mining was
applied using the k‑means clustering approach to classify the tests.
RESULTS: The mean percentage of answers to all tests was 69.97 ± 19.16, and the number of
questions was 34.48 ± 18.75. In two semesters, there was no significant difference between the
difficulty of examinations (P = 0.84). However, there was a significant difference in the discrimination
index, skewness, and kurtosis of tests (P < 0.001). Moreover, according to the results of the clustering
analysis in the first semester, 43% of the tests were very hard, 16% hard, and 7% moderate. In the
second semester, 43% were hard, 16% moderate, and 41% easy.
CONCLUSION: To evaluate the tests’ quality, calculating difficulty and discrimination indices is
not sufficient; many factors can affect the quality of tests. Furthermore, the experience of the first
semester had changed characteristics of the second‑semester examinations. To enhance the quality
of online tests, establishing appropriate rules to hold the examinations and using questions with
higher taxonomy are recommended.

Abstract Context: General practitioners should be competent to be accountable for patients’ needs,
but they do not acquire core competencies during education in medical schools. Aims: This
study was aimed at determine the most usual obstetric and gynecological as well as pediatric
diseases in rural and urban care centers in Isfahan province. Settings and Design: This is a
cross‑sectional descriptive study which was done in Isfahan province in 2011. Sixty‑four physicians
(general practitioners) in rural and urban health care centers in Isfahan province participated in
this study. Subjects and Methods: Participants completed valid and reliable questionnaires for
gynecological/obstetric and pediatric diseases. These questionnaires included some demographic
data and diseases of each category (according to general medicine curriculum). Scales 1‑5 for
each disease referral times was determined respectively as: Rare, sometimes, weekly to monthly,
daily to weekly and daily. Statistical Analysis Used: The data were descriptively analyzed by
SPSS 11.5(SPSS Inc. in Chicago). Results: Nearly 43.7% of participants were male. The mean
age of participants was 39.0 ± 7.0 and their mean working experience was 11.3 ± 5.9 years. The
highest referral times’ score in rural and urban care centers in gynecological and obstetric group
was vaginal discharge; in pediatrics, it was the common cold. Conclusions: In this study, the
extent to which general practitioners encountered different gynecological/obstetric and pediatric
diseases in rural and urban care centers in Isfahan province was determined. Although, these
data are useful for decision makers to establish medical core curriculum, other factors such as
seasonal load of diseases should also be observed to determine the differences between rural
and urban care centers in most usual diseases of women and children.

Abstract Introduction: Residents have an important role as teachers and need to know about teaching,
teaching methods and skills. In developed countries, “resident-as-teacher” programs have
been implemented progressively; but there is little information about this theme in developing
countries such as Iran. This study aimed to determine effects of “teaching method” workshop
on surgical residents’ teaching skills in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Materials and
Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 18 residents in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years of surgical
residency in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences have attended in a 10-hour workshop.
Two questionnaires (validity and reliability) was verified: Clinical teaching self-assessment and
clinical teaching evaluation was completed before and after the intervention (“teaching method”
workshop) by attending residents and rater interns, respectively. Paired-samples T-test was
used to analyze collecting data. Results: After intervention, Self-assessment mean scores were
increased in two categories: feedback from 3.34 to 3.94 (P = 0.011) and promoting self-directed
learning from 3.53 to 4.02 (P = 0.009); whereas, there was no significant differences in evaluation
mean scores. Conclusion: Statistical results from self-assessment and evaluation scores show
little improvement in residents’ teaching skills after the intervention, but residents assessed the
workshop as useful. Lack of motivation in interns and little reward for residents who attend in
educational activities could be responsible for these results. So, to promote role of residents’
as teachers, we offer revision in residency curriculum and residents’ formal duties as well as
designing educational programs in teaching theme based on our needs and resources.