1. Facilitating Group Learning through Case-based Exercises in the Pharmacy Practice Curriculum
Ryan S. Funk
University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Practice, Lawrence, Kansas University of Kansas Medical Center, Pharmacology, Toxicology & Therapeutics, Kansas City, Kansas
Background
Pharmacotherapy is a mandatory five semester module-based course in the School of Pharmacy that is team taught by faculty within the Department of Pharmacy Practice and includes lectures delivered by a diversity of faculty based on their clinical practice expertise. The course is taught in a traditional lecture hall with a seat capacity and is broadcast live to approximately 20 students located on the Wichita campus. The objective of the course is to teach students about the pharmacotherapy of various disease states and the role of the pharmacist in disease state management, and requires the integration of previous coursework in pathophysiology and pharmacology.
Results
Quiz on Pre-class Material
In-class exercise on the retrieval
Impact of an In-class Literature Review Exercise 60
“Prepared”
Quiz on pre-lecture preparation material. A pre-lecture quiz based on the assigned reading
and interpretation of clinical guidelines (literature). Peer group discussion had minimal impact on the percentage of students responding correctly to a question requiring the 50
100 40 30 20
Count
“Unprepared” 80
material and video
% Correct 60
webcast revealed that 26 of 119 (21%) failed to
use of published clinical treatment guidelines. Following an in-class 10 40
adequately prepare for class.
exercise requiring students to find,
Objective
The aim of this work is to evaluate the integration of case-based group learning into a large multi-campus classroom that has traditionally relied on lecture-based learning. 20 20 40
60 80
100
read, and interpret the treatment guidelines a marked increase in the percentage of students responding correctly was observed.
% Correct
Post
Alone
Group
Exercise
In-class Case-based Questions: Alone vs. Group
Alone Group
Methods
Conclusions
100 80
Students were assigned topic reading material and a prepared video webcast in preparation for the course period. A five questions quiz was administered at the beginning of class to evaluate student preparation. The in class material was designed to reiterate the important concepts in the provided material, but did not expand beyond the assigned material. Within the in-class material a sequence of 14 case-based questions were generated in TurningPoint® (Turning Technologies, LLC) and designed for student response in the TurningPoint® mobile device application. The questions were integrated into a PowerPoint® (Microsoft Corp) presentation in duplicate to allow for the initial response without group discussion, and then subsequently following a brief group discussion among their peers. One question was presented a total of three times to allow for an in-class exercise and evaluation on student retrieval and interpretation of online clinical practice guidelines. The in class material wasn’t available for student download until 5 minutes prior to class. The percent of students responding correctly to each question was collected using the web-based polling software and contained no identifiable student information. Student performance pre and post group discussion was compared by Wilcoxon Signed Rank analysis. Students were encouraged to provide feedback at the end of semester with regard to the experimental format.
% Correct
Case-based group learning exercises can be effectively introduced into traditional large lecture-based and multi-campus settings. However, a steep learning curve with the technology is a major barrier to effective execution. 60 40 20
Based on the results of this experimental integration of group learning through case- based exercises my data supports improved learning through in-class group exercises, and demonstrates the ability to document active learning exercises in a large class format through the use of a web-based classroom response system. 2 4 6 8
Question # 10 12 14
Percentage of students with the correct response on 14 questions when answered alone, compared to following a brief peer discussion period. For all questions assessed, it appears that more students answered correctly following peer discussion than alone (i.e. prior to group discussion).
Future Directions
Pharmacotherapy IV (PHPR 664) is scheduled to undergo a fully ‘flipped’ model of instruction in the Fall 2018 Semester and will implement the practices established within this work.
Impact of Peer Group Discussion on Responses to Case-based Questions
p<0.0001
100 30
Funding
Support for this project was provided through the University of Kansas Center for Teaching Excellence Best Practices Institute. 80 25
Learning Module Structure
% Correct
DCorrect (%) 20 60
Pre-class Video Webcast 15 40 10
Pre-class Reading Material 20 5
In-class literature search/interpretation activity
In-class Quiz on Pre-class Material
Alone Group
Group - Alone
Lecture
Overall impact of group discussion on percentage of students with correct response. The percentage for students responding correctly increased from a mean±SD of 66.1±20.8% to 78.1±19.7% and reflected a mean±SD increase in the percentage of students answering correctly of 12.1±8.2% (p<0.0001).
Case-based questions, alone and in groups