Dental undergraduate views of objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs): A literature review

Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are widely used in dental undergraduate assessment, often determining progression or graduation. Student evaluation of this assessment process is important, and this includes identifying the views of the student. The aim of this paper is to present a review of the current literature regarding dental student perceptions of OSCEs. A search of the PubMed database covering the period 1975 to 2015 identified 121 possible papers from which only six were suitable for review. The remaining papers were excluded due to them not reporting on dental undergraduate views. Students perceived the OSCE to be a valid assessment in three studies, but not in one. The educational benefit of an OSCE is well supported by these studies. OSCEs can induce high levels of anxiety compared to other forms of assessments, but this did not affect student performance. The majority of students would chose to have a similar format of assessment again, showing support for OSCEs. Further research using larger cohorts of students could be undertaken in order to support these finding which would give added evidence for the continuing use of OSCEs as a valid method of both dental undergraduate education and assessment.