Follow-up descriptive study of how proportioning marks between coursework and examination affects the performance of students in nursing

BACKGROUND: There has been little attention to how the allocation of marks affects the academic performance of students in courses. Our previous study showed that students in nursing had much lower marks in exams than coursework (tutorials and case study) in a pharmacology course. It is not known whether this applies to nursing students in other courses and/or with different types of coursework. The purpose of this study was to analyse how the allocation of marks to examination and different coursework affected the performance of students in nursing in a bioscience course. METHODS: For the 379 completing students in a nursing degree undertaking a first-year first semester bioscience course, a descriptive study was undertaken of (i) the marks for the exam and two coursework components (individually undertaken laboratory skills, and a team/group project on health communication), with the marks being compared by Students t-test, (ii) any association between these marks was determined by regression line analysis, and (iii) modelling was undertaken to determine the effects of changing the allocation of marks on passing and failing rates. RESULTS: Students in nursing who completed a bioscience course had much lower marks in the exam than the coursework. Regression line analysis of the marks in the exam versus combined coursework showed (a) a poor line fit and (b) the correlation coefficient was moderate (r = 0.51), for the individual laboratory skills vs. exam was moderate (r = 0.49), but only weak for the group project on health communication vs. exam (r = 0.25). A high percentage of students passed the course (97%). Modelling showed that increasing the marks for the exam decreased the number of students passing the course to as few as 57%. CONCLUSIONS: The allocation of marks determines the percentage of students in nursing who pass courses, regardless of the type of coursework. The students in nursing in the bioscience course, who pass the course based on marks from coursework, but not the examination component, may not have the necessary knowledge to continue their program of study. Thus, requiring students in nursing to pass exams should be given further consideration.