Effect of Collaborative vs. Noncollaborative Quizzes on Examination Scores in a Pharmaceutical Calculations Course

Course design, delivery, and assessment strategies for pharmaceutical calculations course in a doctor of pharmacy program: A review

BACKGROUND

Pharmaceutical calculations is a fundamental course taken by doctor of pharmacy students in United States schools and colleges of pharmacy. To minimize medical errors and increase the accuracy with which future pharmacists perform calculations, a comprehensive training during the program is deemed. This review attempts to summarize research outcomes of interventions described thus far in the literature concerning the improvement of course design, delivery, and assessment strategies.

METHODS

A detailed literature review of various educational resources was conducted using pharmaceutical calculations and related terms.

RESULTS

The literature review outcomes were divided into three major categories: educational interventions in design, delivery, and assessment of pharmaceutical calculations courses. The research findings of course design describe a standalone course vs. an integrated course, a computer-aided course, use of compact disc read-only memory, and implementation of Gagne's Nine Events of Instructions. Findings in course delivery include the use of self-paced vs. integrated courses, flipped classroom vs. traditional lecture, Keller's Personalized System of Instruction, condensed videos, and podcasts. Finally, different types of assessments are presented such as those based on selected- vs. constructed-response questions, collaborative quizzes, the approach of repeated testing, and the use of technology.

IMPLICATIONS

While the review intends to present educational interventions available to construct and/or modify an existing pharmaceutical calculations course, the choice of design, delivery, and assessment approaches depends upon various factors such as the purpose of course modification, resources available, and the number of students in class.

Cognitive rehabilitation for individuals with opioid use disorder: A randomized controlled trial. Neuropsychol Rehabil 2017;29:1273-1289. [PMID: 29161998 DOI: 10.1080/09602011.2017.1391103]

Aim: To examine the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation treatment (CRT) for people with opioid use disorder who were recruited into a methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) programme. Method: 120 male subjects were randomly assigned to (1) MMT plus CRT in two months or (2) MMT plus a control intervention. Subjects were assessed at the beginning, mid-point and post-intervention as well as at 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-up time points. Results: Analysis with repeated measure ANOVA showed that the CRT group performed significantly better in tests of learning, switching, processing speed, working memory and memory span. Moreover, the CRT group had significantly lower opiate use over the control group during 3-months follow-up. Analysis including only those with a history of methamphetamine use showed that the CRT group had significantly lower amphetamine use. No group differences were observed for treatment retention. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence that adding CRT as an adjunct intervention to MMT can improve cognitive performance as well as abstinence from both opiates and stimulants.

Requiring students to justify answer changes during collaborative testing may be necessary for improved academic performance

OBJECTIVE

Three hypotheses were tested in a chiropractic education program: (1) Collaborative topic-specific exams during a course would enhance student performance on a noncollaborative final exam administered at the end-of-term, compared to students given traditional (noncollaborative) topic-specific exams during the course. (2) Requiring reasons for answer changes during collaborative topical exams would further enhance final-exam performance. (3) There would be a differential question-type effect on the cumulative final exam, with greater improvement in comprehension question scores compared to simple recall question scores.

METHODS

A total of 223 students participated in the study. Students were assigned to 1 of 2 study cohorts: (1) control - a traditional, noncollaborative, exam format; (2) collaborative exam only (CEO) - a collaborative format, not requiring answer change justification; and (3) collaborative exam with justification (CEJ) - a collaborative exam format, but requiring justification for answer changes.

RESULTS

Contrary to expectation (hypothesis 1), there was no significant difference between control and CEO final exam scores (p = .566). However, CEJ final exam scores were statistically greater (hypothesis 2) than the control (p = .010) and CEO (p = .011) scores. There was greater collaboration benefit when answering comprehension than recall questions during topic-specific exams (p = .000), but this did not differentially influence study cohort final exam scores (p = .571, hypothesis 3).

CONCLUSION

We conclude that test collaboration with the requirement that students explain the reason for making answer changes is a more effective learning tool than simple collaboration that does not require answer change justification.

Student perceptions of group examinations as a method of exam review in pharmacotherapeutics

OBJECTIVE

Evaluate student perceptions of learning outcomes, group dynamics, and team-based skill development during group-retake exams in pharmacy education.

DESIGN

Group-retake examinations utilizing distributed practice were implemented in a pharmacotherapeutics course to serve as a post-individual exam review. A survey was designed to assess student perceptions of these group-retake exams.

ASSESSMENT

Students perceived group-retake examinations to be beneficial in respect to retention and application of content. Peer teaching was reported to be effective and occur frequently. Minimal hostility and stress were reported. Consensus answers were reached often and this improved throughout the semester. Overall, 92% of students agreed that group-retake examinations should be continued.

CONCLUSION

Group-retake examinations were perceived by students to be an effective method for exam review within pharmacy education.