To develop and evaluate a file collecting system for formative assessment used by orthodontic teachers.

Data conversion tool was developed with Python which optimized file collecting process with on-line questionnaire. Teachers from the orthodontic department, Foshan Stomatological Hospital were recruited in our study, demonstrated how to use the file collecting system and then asked to collect 10 assignment files with e-mail, online questionnaire and our system, respectively. Time used and amount of mouse clicks for each methods were recorded and compared with analysis of variance. Then surveys were carried out to investigate the use of online questionnaire and predictors for time consumption in each method were investigated with simple linear regression and multivariable linear regression.

During the period of May, 2019 to July, 2019, 20 teachers[11 male, 9 female, age (37.8 ± 7.3) years, all of them are dentist by profession] were recruited in our study. File collecting with e-mail took (10.40 ± 2.43) min, and (151.0 ± 70.6) clicks. With on-line questionnaire, it took (5.91 ± 0.13) min and (37.7 ± 10.5) clicks, while with our system, it only took (3.99 ± 0.34) min and (11.0 ± 1.7) clicks to finish. Differences in time consumption (F = 106.7, P<0.001) and clicks (F = 64.9, P<0.001) were statistically significant. Multi-variable regression showed that recent file collecting related experience was an independent predictor (β₁ = -0.34, P = 0.04) for time consumption with our system.

Our system is superior in time consumption and simplicity when compared with traditional file collecting method, such as e-mail, and on-line questionnaire. This trend is especially prominent for teachers who recently carried out file collecting tasks. In general, our research provided a useful tool for assignment file collection in formative assessment.