ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To document the type and extent of active-learning techniques used in US colleges and schools of pharmacy as well as factors associated with use of these techniques. METHODS: A survey instrument was developed to assess whether and to what extent active learning was used by faculty members of US colleges and schools of pharmacy. This survey instrument was distributed via the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) mailing list. RESULTS: Ninety-five percent (114) of all US colleges and schools of pharmacy were represented with at least 1 survey among the 1179 responses received. Eighty-seven percent of respondents used active-learning techniques in their classroom activities. The heavier the teaching workload the more active-learning strategies were used. Other factors correlated with higher use of active-learning strategies included younger faculty member age (inverse relationship), lower faculty member rank (inverse relationship), and departments that focused on practice, clinical and social, behavioral, and/or administrative sciences. CONCLUSIONS: Active learning has been embraced by pharmacy educators and is used to some extent by the majority of US colleges and schools of pharmacy. Future research should focus on how active-learning methods can be used most effectively within pharmacy education, how it can gain even broader acceptance throughout the academy, and how the effect of active learning on programmatic outcomes can be better documented.
Subject(s)
Education, Pharmacy , Problem-Based Learning , Faculty , Humans , United StatesABSTRACT
A new optical metal ion sensor based on diffusion followed by an immobilizing reaction has been developed. The current sensor is based on a model that unifies two fundamental processes which a metal analyte undergoes when it is exposed to a porous, ligand-grafted monolith: (a) diffusion of metal ions to the binding sites and (b) metal-ligand (ML(n)) complexation. A slow diffusion of the metal ions is followed by their fast immobilizing reaction with the ligands in the monolith to give a complex. Inside the region where the ligands have been saturated, the diffusion of the metal ions reaches a steady state with a constant external metal ion concentration (C(0)). If the complex ML(n) could be observed spectroscopically, the absorbance of the product A(p) follows: A(p) = Kt(1/2), K = 2epsilon(p)(L(0)C(0)D)(1/2). D = diffusion constant of the metal ions inside the porous solid; L(0) = concentration of the ligands grafted in the monolith; and t = time. This equation is straightforward to use, and the K vs C(0)(1/2) plot provides the correlations with the concentrations (C(0)) of the metal ions. This is a rare optical sensor for quantitative metal ion analysis. The use of the model in a mesoporous sol-gel monolith containing grafted amine ligands for quantitative Cu(2+) sensing is demonstrated. This model may also be used in other chemical sensors that depend on diffusion of analytes followed by immobilizing reactions in porous sensors containing grafted/encapsulated functional groups/molecules.
