MCOPS Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Mini-Workshop on MCQs in MCQs by Dr K Ramnarayan, Pro-Chancellor, Sikkim Manipal University was held on 26 March 2023 at 03:00 pm in PGR conference hall, MCOPS. The esteemed speaker was introduced by Dr C Mallikarjuna Rao, Principal, MCOPS. Dr K Ramnarayan was the fifth Vice Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) from 2010 to 2015. Post his tenure as VC of MAHE, he became the Vice President, Faculty Development, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) and Chairperson, Manipal University Jaipur followed by shouldering the responsibility as Pro Chancellor-Sikkim Manipal University. In addition, he is the National Coordinator DTH (Direct to Home) of SWAYAM PRABHA for Medicine Content Development.

Dr Ramnarayan has been with the Manipal group for over four decades in different academic and leadership positions. His experience and expertise are in higher education, academic leadership and curriculum development. During his stint as the Vice Chancellor of MAHE, the focus was on strengthening the academic processes in the university, be it the functioning of the Senate and the Board of Studies or the enrichment of the curriculum. Various people empowerment initiatives were launched such as SMILE (Synergic Manipal Integrated Leadership Engagement) programme to nurture future leaders by conducting leadership programmes for the Heads of Institutions and Heads of the Departments. As the first Chairman of the Manipal Education System Vice Chancellors’ Council (MESVCC), he created a vibrant forum for inter-campus deliberations and set in place the norms for sharing the best practices among the Manipal group of institutions. He has conducted Pedagogic and Personal Effectiveness workshops for faculty in the Manipal group campuses in Jaipur, Sikkim, Melaka and Dubai, apart from those for the Indian Society of Periodontology and the National Institute for Advanced Studies in Architecture. Over the past 30 years, he has conducted over 600 faculty development workshops, nationally and internationally. He was a member of the UGC Expert Committee to review regulations for deemed universities and private universities. During his speech, Dr Rao also shared his experience as a young faculty member attending the pedagogy sessions conducted by Dr Ramnarayan.

Dr Ramnarayan began with explaining the fundamentals of assessment and pointed out that what drives learning is “Assessment” thus rendering assessment/ evaluation an important part of the curriculum. Dr Ramnarayan elaborated on objective and subjective types of assessments with examples. Different MCQ types such as A, B and K were discussed with examples for A type. A good MCQ will have ‘Item’ which contains stem and responses (options); Stem implies properly framed question, and responses include effective distractors and one correct answer. He also gave examples for plausible distractors and dummy distractors. He distributed handouts which included example of a properly framed MCQ with stem and responses, & checklist for reviewing MCQ items. He discussed main 10 quirks in MCQs with excellent examples. He mentioned that the three ingredients for success in MCQ preparation, are usage of standard format, precise & concise wording and collaboration in authorship. The session was highly interactive and Dr Ramnarayan addressed all the question and doubts raised by the faculty members and research scholars. The program concluded with the felicitation of the esteemed speaker by AVM (Dr) Dilip Chandra Agarwal, Dean of Manipal College of Medical Sciences (MCOMS) Nepal and the CEO Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), Nepal,  Dr C Mallikarjuna Rao, Principal, MCOPS and Dr Krishnamurthy Bhat, Vice Principal, MCOPS.

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