Abstract:
Background: With the continuity of the COVD-19 pandemic and the rapid emergency remote teaching, Assessment was considered problematic. Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) to assess the core skills required for the family physician is mandatory despite the circumstances. Objectives: This paper is to describe the experience of planning and conducting a virtual OSCE during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Students enrolled in the professional family medicine diploma were the participants of the study. A suggested set-up of the virtual OSCE exam using the ZOOM meeting application was approved by the diploma council. Pilot Mock was done after orientation and preparation. Exam was conducted on parallel 2 sets of stations, each set is composed from 4 stations, facilitated by 3 coordinators and 1 assistant host in the ZOOM session. Each session included 10 students, 4 examiners. Coordinators (hosts) assigned assessors and role players in the designated (virtual) breakout rooms with the candidate, instructions displayed all through the station on the white board of this room. Results: Pilot Mock was conducted, and the feedback was improved in the actual exam setting. Nearly 18 examinee, 8 assessors and 3 moderators and administrate commenced the actual exam. Almost 87.5 % of the assessors were satisfied with the exam. The correlation of the virtual OSCE to written assessment was 0.52 which shows acceptable concurrent validity. Conclusion: Virtual OSCE is still an early version of a method for assessing the clinical skills remotely that needs logistics and further study.