Khaled Almisnid¹
Matt Homer², Trudie Roberts³ and Rikki Goddard-Fuller⁴
1 Medical Education Unit, Unaizah College of Medicine, Qassim University, KSA. 2 University of Leeds
3 Emeritus Professor of Medical Education, University of Leeds, UK
4 Christie Education, Manchester, UK

Research Questions
1) How is the OSCE being implemented in Saudi medical schools? 
The aim of this research question is to examine the OSCE’s implementation in the Saudi context and explore whether the context matters for the OSCE’s implementation. 

2) What are the opportunities and challenges offered by adopting the OSCE in Saudi medical schools? 
This seeks to explore drivers, opportunities, and challenges in implementing high-quality OSCEs in Saudi Arabia (SA). 

A qualitative, in-depth case study approach was employed to gather rich narrative and documentary data, building on my constructivist perspective. Each case study gathered assessment documents and conducted interviews with administrative staff and focus groups with OSCE designers and examiners. Codebook analysis reviewed documents, while the interviews and focus group data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. 

Findings 

Four key themes were generated: institutional and assessment culture, faculty expertise and practices, OSCE quality and design, and resource and infrastructure setup. In both case studies, a central overarching theme of the entire data set is that each stage of OSCE implementation involves a series of dilemmas and compromises. In addition, several factors appear to influence how the OSCE is implemented in this context, including the source of medical school funding (public/private), accreditation status, faculty experience, and the availability of resources. Based on these findings, I developed a framework that was intended to assist the institutions in designing and maintaining an OSCE of high quality. 

What areas of this project would I need to consider developing further? 

If I could replicate this project elsewhere, what alternative data collection and analysis methods would you recommend? 

Considering the present research findings, which area warrants further investigation? 

Do you believe that collaborating with other countries in the region to analyse the OSCE implementation further would be beneficial? 

References (maximum three) 

Boursicot, K., Kemp, S., Wilkinson, T., Findyartini, A., Canning, C., Cilliers, F. and Fuller, R. 2020. Performance assessment: Consensus statement and recommendations from the 2020 Ottawa Conference. Medical Teacher. 43(1), pp.58-67. 

Harden, R., Lilley, P. and Patricio, M. 2016. The Definitive Guide to the OSCE. London: Elsevier. 

Khan, K.Z., Ramachandran, S., Gaunt, K. and Pushkar, P. 2013. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE): AMEE Guide No. 81. Part I: An historical and theoretical perspective. Medical Teacher. 35(9), pp.e1437-e1446.