Student Course Performance and Collaborative Testing: A Prospective Follow-On Study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This prospective study evaluated the efficacy of collaborative testing on student performance at a chiropractic college. METHODS: This study compared testing performance between 2 cohorts of chiropractic students taking a neuroanatomy course: a control group (n = 73) and an experimental group (n = 80). Scores examined for each cohort included weekly quizzes, unit examinations, and a comprehensive final examination. The control cohort completed weekly quizzes as individuals, whereas the experimental cohort completed the quizzes collaboratively in small groups. Both cohorts completed the unit examinations and the comprehensive final examination as individuals. Multivariate analysis of variance was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Overall, the experimental group differed from the control group (Wilks lambda = 0.300; F = 33.081; df = 10,142; P < .01). In addition to the weekly quizzes and the final grades, the mean of the sums of the quiz scores and mean of the sums of the examination scores were significantly higher for the experimental group as compared with the control group (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study reaffirmed previous study findings that collaborative testing appears to have increased student performance.