Pharmacy students' views of faculty feedback on academic performance

Effectiveness of feedback type on performance quality and satisfaction of nursing student: A comparative interventional study

BACKGROUND

Although feedback has a major impact on teaching and learning, the type and way of providing it can have diverse effects. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of two types of verbal and written feedback on nursing students' performance quality and satisfaction.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This experimental study, that carried out in 2019, has a crossover design. The participants included 30 bachelors of science in nursing at Shushtar Faculty of Medical Sciences, who were assigned to two groups of 15. The first group received first verbal feedback and then written, during basic nursing skills training. The second group received first written feedback and then verbal. At the end of each half of the training sessions, students' performance and their satisfaction were assessed by, researchermade observational checklists, and a satisfaction questionnaire, respectively. Data were analyzed using SPSS16 software and analyzed using Chi-square and paired t test. Significance level < 0.01 was considered.

RESULTS

The mean scores of students' performance in the stages of verbal and written feedback were 15.7 ± 2.5 and 17.7 ± 2.3, respectively. Written feedback was more effective in students' performance (P = 0.001) and students were more satisfied with this type of feedback (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

According to the present study, using written feedback can improve the quality of students' performances and is associated with high satisfaction. Thus, professors should pay more attention to feedback in their educational processes and use different types of feedback, especially written feedback, in line with the context.

Development and evaluation of a serious game to support learning among pharmacy and nursing students

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Serious games (SGs) are a digital method that promotes learning through playability. DOSE is a SG that aims to improve the use and navigation of the British National Formulary, a standard medicines reference source. This research aimed to design and examine the playability and perceptions of DOSE within healthcare curricula.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING

The study used gaming psychology concepts to design DOSE and evaluated it across two cohorts of students from the undergraduate pharmacy and nursing courses at Kingston University. Pre- and post-game questionnaires were utilised to examine usability and student perceptions. SG playability and validity were measured against standard criteria using validated assessment frameworks. Cronbach's α was calculated to determine the internal reliability of the framework assessments.

FINDINGS

The SG was validated for playability, functionality, and rationale (α ≥ 0.8). The majority (95%, n = 95) of pharmacy students reported they would use DOSE again with 58% (n = 58) indicating they would use the SG as a revision tool. DOSE was also perceived positively among the nursing cohort, with 84% (n = 118) indicating they would like to see DOSE embedded within the curriculum; 77% (n = 108) agreed DOSE had helped to improve their knowledge of pharmacology.

SUMMARY

DOSE playability and validity was reported by pharmacy students. Nursing students reported a significant increase in confidence using the BNF and overall high acceptability of DOSE as a SG. DOSE was found to be a usable SG model across both cohorts.