Evaluating pharmacy student use of ExamSoft strength and opportunity reports.

INTRODUCTION: This paper assesses use of ExamSoft strength and opportunity (S&O) reports amongst doctor of pharmacy students, student perceptions of the reports, and the effect of instructing students on how best to use the reports. METHODS: Second-year pharmacy students enrolled in the medicinal chemistry and pharmacology course sequence completed a baseline survey regarding use of S&O reports in the fall semester. Educational interventions describing best practices on how to use the S&O report were provided to students. A follow-up survey was conducted in the winter semester. RESULTS: Eighty-four percent (69/82) of students returned a valid baseline survey, and 89% (71/80) returned a valid follow-up survey. At baseline, 55% (38/69) always/sometimes downloaded the report; this increased to 68% (48/71) after educational interventions (P = .06). Students who downloaded the report were asked to provide their perceived usefulness of the S&O report. At baseline, 76% (29/38) of students downloading the report rated it as either somewhat/very useful; this increased to 94% (45/48) following educational interventions (P = .002). Fewer students reported not being able to interpret the report post-intervention vs. baseline, although the decrease was not significant (9% vs. 21%, respectively; P = .07). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that providing students with a downloadable S&O report after exams is beneficial. There was a trend towards increased student use and a significant increase in perceived usefulness of the report following brief educational interventions. Our pilot data suggest that educational interventions on use of S&O reports should be included in student ExamSoft training.

Integrating a new medicinal chemistry and pharmacology course sequence into the PharmD curriculum.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the implementation of an integrated medicinal chemistry/pharmacology course sequence and its alignment with a therapeutics series. DESIGN: Each topic was divided into modules consisting of 2-hour blocks, and the content was integrated and aligned with the therapeutics series. Recitation sessions emphasizing application skills in an interactive environment followed each of three 2-hour blocks. To ensure that students achieved competency in each unit, students failing any unit examination were encouraged to undergo remediation. ASSESSMENT: Student feedback was collected by an independent researcher through social media and focus groups and relayed anonymously to course directors for midcourse improvements. Responses from surveys, interviews, and student ratings of faculty members and of courses were used to implement changes for future editions of the courses. CONCLUSION: The majority of students and faculty members felt the integration and alignment processes were beneficial changes to the curriculum. Elements of the new sequence, including remediation, were viewed positively by students and faculty members as well.

The use of virtual laboratories and other web-based tools in a drug assay course.

OBJECTIVE: To determine students' perceptions of and performance in a drug assay laboratory course after the addition of Web-based multimedia tools. DESIGN: Video modules and other Web-based tools to deliver instructions and emulate the laboratory set up for experiments were implemented in 2005 to improve student preparation for laboratory sessions and eliminate the need for graduate students to present instructions live. ASSESSMENT: Data gathered from quizzes, final examinations, and post-course surveys administered over 6 years were analyzed. Students' scores on online quizzes after implementation of the virtual laboratories reflected improved student understanding and preparation. Students' perception of the course improved significantly after the introduction of the tools and the new teaching model. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of an active-learning model in a laboratory course led to improvement in students' educational experience and satisfaction. Additional benefits included improved resource use, student exposure to a variety of educational methods, and having a highly structured laboratory format that reduced inconsistencies in delivered instructions.