Abstract
When setting standards, administrators of small-scale OSCEs often face several challenges, including a lack of resources, a lack of available expertise in statistics, and difficulty in recruiting judges. The Modified Borderline-Group Method is a standard setting procedure that compensates for these challenges by using physician examiners and is easy to use making it a good choice for small scale OSCEs. Unfortunately, the use of this approach may introduce a new challenge. Because a small scale OSCE has a small number of examinees, there may be few examinees in the borderline range, which could introduce an unintentional bias. A standard setting method called The Borderline Regression Method will be described. This standard setting method is similar to the Modified Borderline-Group Method but incorporates a linear regression approach allowing the cut score to be set using the scores from all examinees and not from a subset. The current study uses confidence intervals to analyze the precision of cut scores derived from both approaches when applied to a small scale OSCE.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. Cusimano (1996) ArticleTitleStandard setting in medical education Academic Medicine 71 s112–s120 Occurrence Handle10.1097/00001888-199610000-00062
W.D. Dauphinee D.E. Blackmore S.M. Smee A.I. Rothman R.K. Reznick (1997) ArticleTitleUsing the judgments of physician examiners in setting standards for a national multi-centre high stakes OSCE Advances in Health Science Education: Theory and Practice 2 201–211 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1009768127620
W.F Dixon F.J. Massey (1969) Introduction to Statistical Analysis McGraw Hill New York
S. Humphrey-Murto J.C. MacFadyen (2002) ArticleTitleStandard Setting: A comparison of case-author and modified borderline-group methods in a small-scale OSCE Academic Medicine 77 134–137 Occurrence Handle10.1097/00001888-200207000-00019
D.G. Kleinbaum L.L. Kupper K.E. Muller (1988) Applied Regression Analysis and Other Multivariable Methods Duxbury Press Belmont, CA
A. Kramer A. Muitjens K. Jansen H. Dusman L. Tan C. Vleuten Particlevan der (2003) ArticleTitleComparison of a rational and an empirical standard setting procedure for an OSCE Medical Education 37 132–139 Occurrence Handle10.1046/j.1365-2923.2003.01429.x
MacFadyen, I.J.C. (1996). A Modified Borderline Groups Method to Establish Case-Based Pass/Fail Decisions for an Undergraduate Objective Structured Clinical Exam: Exploring Issues of Validity. Masters dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago
S.M. Smee D.E. Blackmore (2001) ArticleTitleSetting standards for an objective structured clinical examination: the borderline group method gains ground on Angoff Medical Education 35 1009–1010 Occurrence Handle10.1046/j.1365-2923.2001.01047.x
T.J. Wilkinson D.I. Newble C.M. Frampton (2001) ArticleTitleStandard setting in an objective structured clinical examination: use of global ratings of borderline performance to determine the passing score Medical Education 35 1043–1049 Occurrence Handle10.1046/j.1365-2923.2001.01041.x
D.J. Woehr W. Arthur M.L Fehrmann (1991) ArticleTitleAn empirical comparison of cutoff score methods for content-related and criterion-related validity settings Educational and Psychological Measurement 51 1029–1039
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wood, T.J., Humphrey-Murto, S.M. & Norman, G.R. Standard Setting in a Small Scale OSCE: A Comparison of the Modified Borderline-Group Method and the Borderline Regression Method. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract 11, 115–122 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-005-7853-1
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-005-7853-1