Student selection is an important step in educating tomorrow’s doctors, and during this process, it is critical that candidates’ cognitive and non-cognitive attributes be assessed in order to select those with the qualities required of good doctors [1]. Several research studies have shown the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) is a valid and reliable tool for assessing candidates’ non-cognitive qualities in medical student selection [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. Meanwhile, it has also been reported that the reliabilities of MMIs can vary widely depending on the way they are administered and structured [2, 6], which suggests research is needed to determine effective formats for MMIs.
Although MMIs are widely recognized as a selection tool in medical education, our review of relevant literature indicates little attention has been paid to using technology in MMIs. There has been a plethora of research and practice on using technology in medical education to improve student learning and assessment [18, 19]. Moreover, technology is increasingly incorporated into medical school admissions processes [20], which include using video-based scenarios in situational judgement tests [21]. Furthermore, with the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly changing the landscape of medical education, it is likely that there will be increasing use of technology in medical school admissions processes. Still, research is scant on the use of technology in MMIs. Thus, research is needed on the MMI format that makes effective use of technology.
Candidates’ various non-cognitive attributes have been assessed in MMIs. In particular, empathy, which is “a personality trait that enables one to identify with another's situation, thoughts, or condition by placing oneself in their situation [22],” is an important attribute in doctors, and therefore, many medical schools assess candidates’ basic understanding of empathy at admission interviews [23]. However, research is scant on how to assess empathy for student selection purpose [23]. Therefore, research is warranted on developing a feasible tool to assess candidate’s empathy in the MMI.
In the present study, we examined the feasibility of using a video-based scenario in the MMI to assess candidates’ empathic abilities. In general, MMI scenarios are presented in a paper format, but technological developments offer opportunities to adopt other formats for presenting scenarios during MMIs. In particular, it has been advocated candidate’s non-cognitive attributes need to be assessed in authentic contexts [24]. Consequently, some medical schools have reported using actors or standardized patients (SPs) in MMI stations to assess candidates’ empathy or communication skills [4, 6]. Still, using actors or SPs are resources-intensive, and there is a lack of research that provides empirical evidence on the utility of MMIs that utilize such resources. Therefore, it is worthwhile to explore other feasible alternatives to assess candidate’s empathic abilities in MMIs.
We considered that presenting candidates with a scenario involving human interactions on a video vignette would be likely to provide richer contexts than scenarios presented as text. The use of videos to present cases or problems has been studied in case-based learning (CBL) and problem-based learning (PBL) situations, and these studies have shown video-based CBL and PBL are more effective than using paper-based alternatives in terms of fostering critical thinking and interest [25,26,27,28,29]. Therefore, it is speculated that using video-based scenario in MMIs provides candidates with more authentic contexts and enhances interest and engagement. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the feasibility of the use of video-based scenarios in MMIs to assess candidate’s empathic abilities by investigating its perceived benefits, acceptability, fairness, reliability, and validity.