Effect of the Educational Pamphlet on the Quality of Multiple-Choice Questions

Background and Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the structural integrity of multiple-choice questions according to the Millman checklist, and to assess the distinguishing power of these questions between weak and strong students in theoretical courses of Periodontics in an academic year (2014-15) in Dental Branch of Tehran Islamic Azad University. Materials and Methods: A total of 262 students comprising periodontics module 1, 2 and 3 in two semesters responded to 240 multiple-choice questions and results from the two consecutive semesters were compared with each other. ANOVA was used to analyse data. P 0.05 was considered significant. Results: There was no statistical difference between the difficulty coefficient of the questions in the two semesters for Periodontics module 1, 2, and 3 (P-values were 0.2, 0.34 and 0.69, respectively). For discrimination coefficient, there was no significant difference between Periodontics module 2 (P=0.72) and 3(P=0.42) in the two semesters, however, in Periodontics module 1 this difference was significant (P=0.017). Although a favourable change in the indicators of Millman checklist was seen in the second semester, it was not statistically significant (P= 0.65).In total, the difficulty and discrimination coefficients revealed that the majority of questions were medium difficult . Conclusion: Although the educational pamphlet did not significantly improve the quality of multiple-choice questions, some Millman checklist items improved slightly.