Leading a Digital Transformation in Pharmacy Education with a Pandemic as the Accelerant

Mirzaian, Edith; Franson, Kari L.

doi:10.3390/pharmacy9010019

Cited by 13 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…For instance, the Class of 2022 experienced a health sciences interprofessional education event virtually instead of in person, an APPE Gateway course that was more focused on the application of skills for APPE success, a reduced course load in the P3 Spring semester, and increased frequency of low-stakes assessments in courses to ensure engagement with the content and more open-book summative assessments designed to assess critical thinking and decision-making. In addition, the virtual instruction course schedule was vastly different than the schedule the students were accustomed to prior to remote learning [ 12 ]. The curricula experienced between the three groups were not similar by courses, structure and delivery.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two remaining days of the week were dedicated to assessments, virtual office hours with faculty, question and answer sessions, time for students to complete asynchronous work, and one day per week for IPPEs. All knowledge level instructional content was delivered in the asynchronous format with the synchronous sessions dedicated to application-based learning, engaging students with the content expert faculty applying and reinforcing the content from the asynchronous material [ 12 ]. It was our belief based on previous research that active learning would increase self-confidence [ 13 , 14 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the Effect of Virtual Education on Student Pharmacists’ Confidence toward APPE Readiness

et al. 2022

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A drop in confidence in Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) readiness was observed in students in the Class of 2022 prior to starting APPEs. We aim to investigate potential causes of students’ low confidence in APPE preparedness to provide solutions and to prevent this outcome with future students. We evaluated students’ perceived confidence to start APPEs and compared this to curricular changes, employment obligations, and the impact of COVID-19 on delivery of the pre-APPE and APPE curriculum. Students’ low confidence with APPE readiness was not indicative of the following factors: (1) delivery of the didactic curriculum, (2) students’ performance in the didactic curriculum, or (3) number of summative assessments in key didactic courses. Rather, the low confidence perception may have been due to differences such as a fully remote didactic experience in the P3 year, more virtual Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPEs), a reduced course load in the P3 spring semester, and changes to a pre-APPE preparatory course compared to other class years. The students’ self-reported midpoint scores during their first APPE block and preceptor’s evaluations on their performance contrasted their pre-APPE perceptions. Frequent in-person and on-site skills assessments throughout the didactic curriculum seem to reinforce confidence before APPEs.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Effect of Virtual Education on Student Pharmacists’ Confidence toward APPE Readiness

et al. 2022

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“…In other words, the technology allowed teachers to create an immersive constructive learning environment. The potential benefit of virtual reality is described in quite a several research (Coyne et al, 2019;Ventola, 2019;Saienko et al, 2020;Leshchenko et al, 2021;Mirzaian and Franson, 2021)…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, this article focuses on Constructive Learning Theory (CLT) and aims to illustrate how CLT can be enhanced by digital technologies to develop cognitive and metacognitive abilities in pharmacy students. Moreover, the integration of CLT and technologies leads to follow-up transformations of teaching methods (Mirzaian and Franson, 2021). In this paper, the authors outline the process of CLT implementation and its integration with digital educational technologies in the pharmacy curriculum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology-enhanced constructivist learning environment for pharmacy students

et al. 2022

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Objective: This article focuses on constructive learning theory and demonstrates how digital technologies can develop cognitive and metacognitive abilities in pharmacy students. Method: The mixed methodology was used to analyse pharmacy educators’ (n=10) and students’ (n=26) perceptions of the efficiency of online digital resources for the creation of a constructivist learning environment. The authors adapted Constructivist Multimedia Learning Environment Survey by adding the rubric for self-reflective skills and teachers’ support assessment. The qualitative data was collected by interviewing teachers and through self-reflective open discussions. After the session of webinars and self-paced MOOC on the constructivism approach, teachers transformed video lectures into interactive video lessons, conventional theoretic-oriented tasks into web cases and web quests. Result: Comparing the results of the initial students’ evaluation of traditional learning materials and the updated ones, there were positive dynamics in all six domains (average item mean): learning to communicate (5.4 points), learning to investigate (7.8 points), learning to think (4.2 points), relevance (8.6 points), challenges (0.9 points), ease of use (1.2 points), and quality of support (7.2 points). Conclusion: Experts observed teaching activities for critical thinking and inquiry skills development, personalised communication, and integration of digital technologies. The results of the study indicated that there were positive transformations toward the constructivist learning environment.

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“…While many institutions were already delivering digital teaching and learning, academics across the globe had to quickly learn new skills and work long hours to quickly move their courses to digital platforms. As Mirzaian and Franson write, digital transformation in any industry is not a simple undertaking, but when the pandemic wanes and educational institutions teach face-to-face again, they will be able to embrace some of the changes made during the pandemic and make a more strategic shift to transform education [1].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%