A Narrative Overview of the Effectiveness of E-learning in Pharmacy Education

Abstract

In response to the increasing use of a range of technologies within pharmacy education, this review aimed to establish the effectiveness and acceptance of e-learning within pharmacy education and to identify limitations within the research carried out since 2013. The e-learning interventions studied were defined as any online or computer-based technology* used to deliver pharmacy education to pharmacy students or qualified pharmacists in a remote (out of classroom) setting. Evidence of short-term effectiveness of e-learning was found and a small number of studies provided evidence of long-term effectiveness. In comparisons, e-learning was demonstrated to be at least as effective as traditional face-to-face teaching methods and superior to no training at all. Six studies also demonstrated that e-learning could result in a change of pharmacists' practice, while no evidence was found that e-learning could lead to patient benefit or improvements in care. E-learning also appears to be an engaging learning method, which is generally well received among participants. Despite a significant increase in the number of publications investigating e-learning within pharmacy education in the past five years, further research is still required to address limitations within the current literature and to fully establish the effectiveness of e-learning within pharmacy education. *excluding technologies that are recreational in nature, e.g. computer games.

The Effectiveness of E-Learning-Based Sociolinguistic Instruction on EFL University Students’ Sociolinguistic Competence

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Student and faculty perceptions related to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia

“…Both students and faculty members in this study perceived that online learning is not very effective. However, measuring the effectiveness of online learning cannot be solely based on subjective assessment and there is evidence to suggest that online learning is useful and effective (Lean et al, 2018(Lean et al, , 2020O'Hare & Girvin, 2018). There is limited evidence that online learning improves skills and increases long-term knowledge, considering that the effectiveness was assessed subjectively, and improvements were observed immediately after the learning process (Salter et al, 2014).…”