Table 3.
Frequency of students’ responses for selected objectives by level of challenge, cohort, and year
|
Course objectivesa |
Before revision (2015–2016) |
After revision (2016–2017) |
|||||
|
Not/slightly challenging |
Moderately challenging |
Very/extremely challenging |
Not/slightly challenging |
Moderately challenging |
Very/extremely challenging |
P valueb |
|
|
% (n/total) |
% (n/total) |
||||||
|
Entry to practice |
|||||||
|
Explain skewness and kurtosis |
50% (6/12) |
33% (4/12) |
17% (2/12) |
100% (10/10) |
0% (0/10) |
0% (0/10) |
0.028 |
|
Describe the structure associated with hypothesis testing |
25% (3/12) |
25% (3/12) |
50% (6/12) |
90% (9/10) |
10% (1/10) |
0% (0/10) |
0.004 |
|
Explain basic epidemiological study types (both experimental and non-experimental) |
33% (4/12) |
50% (6/12) |
17% (2/12) |
90% (9/10) |
10% (1/10) |
0% (0/10) |
0.028 |
|
Explain strengths and limitations of study designs |
42% (3/7) |
29% (2/7) |
29% (2/7) |
57% (4/7) |
10% (1/10) |
0% (0/10) |
0.085 |
|
Describe the importance of conducting a power calculation |
17% (3/12) |
25% (2/12) |
58% (7/12) |
50% (5/10) |
40% (4/10) |
10% (1/10) |
0.061 |
|
Explain circumstances that permit correlation analysis |
14% (1/7) |
29% (2/7) |
57% (4/7) |
67% (8/12) |
25% (3/12) |
9% (1/12) |
0.058 |
|
Explain circumstances that permit regression analysis |
14% (1/7) |
29% (2/7) |
57% (4/7) |
75% (9/12) |
0% (0/12) |
25% (3/12) |
0.016 |
|
Identify the non-parametric tests which compare to the parametric tests |
29% (2/7) |
71% (5/7) |
0% (0/7) |
92% (12/13) |
8% (1/13) |
0% (0/13) |
0.007 |
|
Explain the application of common non-parametric tests |
25% (3/12) |
42% (5/12) |
33% (4/12) |
92% (11/12) |
8% (1/12) |
0% (0/12) |
0.003 |
|
Recognize possible misapplications of statistical tests |
14% (1/7) |
29% (2/7) |
57% (4/7) |
70% (9/13) |
30% (4/13) |
0% (0/13) |
0.007 |
|
Explain how diagnostic test data are assessed |
0% (0/7) |
71% (5/7) |
29% (2/7) |
77% (10/13) |
23% (3/13) |
0% (0/13) |
0.002 |
|
Degree completion |
|||||||
|
Explain measures of central tendency and dispersion |
42% (5/12) |
50% (6/12) |
8% (1/12) |
86% (6/7) |
0% (0/7) |
14% (1/7) |
0.047 |
|
Explain skewness and kurtosis |
42% (5/12) |
58% (7/12) |
9% (0/12) |
72% (5/7) |
14% (1/7) |
14% (1/7) |
0.097 |
|
Explain tests which would be appropriate for comparisons of more than 2 groups |
8% (1/12) |
50% (6/12) |
42% (5/12) |
66% (4/6) |
17% (1/6) |
17% (1/6) |
0.057 |
|
Explain the application of common non-parametric tests |
17% (2/12) |
33% (4/12) |
50% (6/12) |
80% (4/5) |
0% (0/5) |
20% (1/5) |
0.056 |
aThe level of challenge was investigated on 23 objectives. However, due to space limitations, only objectives having significant (<0.05) or borderline (<0.1) p values are presented. A sample of all 23 objectives in the questionnaire is provided in Appendix A.
bFisher’s Exact Test