University System of Maryland Carnegie Course Redesign Initiative
Pharmaceutics (PHAR 535)
Carnegie Course Redesign Final Report
Cohort 2
2012
University of Maryland Baltimore, School of Pharmacy
Submitted by: Richard Dalby, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Introduction
The current selection for redesign is the three-credit Pharmaceutics (PHAR 535) course.
Enrollment is in class cohorts of 160; 120 in section one at the main campus in Baltimore (UMB)
and 40 in section two at the distance campus at the Universities of Shady Grove in Rockville
(USG). The course is offered annually in the spring of the second year of the 4-year Doctor of
Pharmacy (PharmD) professional graduate program. A typical weekly schedule includes three
hours of lecture plus an additional two- to three- hour activity: a live or virtual laboratory (each
lab assignment includes drug formulation and dosage calculations, and preparation of written
reports), an active learning activity (discussions on regulatory and other contemporary
challenges in drug manufacturing and delivery) or a written examination (outside of class time).
The overall goal of the Pharmaceutics course is for students to be able to select, for a given
drug, an appropriate drug delivery system, formulation method, route of administration, and
assess the stability of the chosen delivery system in order to provide appropriate pharmaceutical
care to a patient. Pharmaceutics applies fundamental principles of how the body functions with
knowledge of how drugs work to formulate the tablets, capsules, oral solutions, injections, and
ointments dispensed and administered every day. Pharmaceutics explores optimization of
traditional and novel routes of administration, ranging in sophistication from simple swallowed
liquids to the most complex transdermal controlled delivery systems. The application of
fundamental principles of drug delivery to solve pharmacy practice (patient) problems is
another emphasis. The course serves as the bridge between the first two years of intensive
basic science knowledge and subsequent advanced, clinically focused coursework and practical
experience which leads to licensure as a pharmacist.
Student feedback over the years indicates a perceived lack of relevance of the pharmaceutics
topics to contemporary pharmacy practice as the course is being taught; and clinical faculty
report that students struggle to apply principles of pharmaceutics in later advanced courses
which necessitates re-teaching fundamental material. Pharmaceutics consistently receives the
lowest ratings for student satisfaction on course evaluations. This course is incredibly
information-rich but has minimal opportunities to move students from “knowing” to “doing.”
Students struggle to link the complexities of each method of drug delivery to effective
therapeutic decision making, and enter third year clinical courses unable apply scientific
concepts to case-based patient scenarios.
The goals of redesign were to use NCAT’s Replacement Model to increase faculty productivity
by paring down information and shifting lectures to pre-recorded content, and improving the
faculty/student relationship with increased and meaningful small group, hands-on activities
that emphasize application of knowledge to practice; to build student competence and
confidence to apply pharmaceutics concepts to clinical decision making by improving individual
support, ongoing assessment, and instant feedback; and to improve student success in the later
curriculum and achievement on the NAPLEX licensing examination.
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A. Impact on Student Learning
1. Improved learning
The newly redesigned second-year Pharmaceutics course was implemented in the Spring of
2013. Grades on the first exam indicated early success of the redesign, although final letter
grades were comparable to previous years. Performance improvement was noted in certain
topic areas as well as on higher-value, more difficult exam questions that required
pharmaceutical calculations (a recent curricular emphasis). Students continue to be challenged
by application of advanced concepts.
% CORRECT ANSWERS
point value of exam questions SP12
SP13
1
77.40
2
71.09
73.55
3
70.16
88.02
Course evaluation feedback was mixed. Students continue to be challenged to understand the
relevance of pharmaceutics to pharmacy practice, and some felt that the additional active
learning sessions were simply “extra work.”
2. Improved Retention
Data will be monitored and compared to previous years for student performance by class year
and campus cohort on each major examination and skill laboratory, as well as final letter grades
and course evaluations. As this class progresses through the curriculum, feedback will be
solicited from faculty who teach in the third year (via course manager meetings), as well as
fourth-year preceptors who oversee the advanced rotations (via online survey tool) to
investigate whether students are better able to retain and apply the pharmaceutics concepts.
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Ultimately pharmacy licensing exam pass rates will be analyzed. Since students sign a waiver to
release their identified scores to the School, we will also correlate the Area 2 score to
Pharmaceutics performance by individual, campus cohort and class year.
3. Other Impacts on Students
Additional active learning sessions increased student time devoted to the course by 6 hours
over the semester. Satisfaction was assessed via the course evaluation: only 45% of students
agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “The prerecorded lectures were more effective in
my understanding of the material than traditional live lectures with Mediasite recording.”
Students were also asked to comment as follows: “Please state if you liked the active learning
session content and structure and suggest how it could be improved.” Complements and
criticisms were largely about teaching styles of individual faculty, pedagogy where an active
learning session was effectively a small group lecture, and feedback on assessments given after
the active learning sessions. Criticisms also related to scheduling issues where the active
learning session did not immediately follow the lectures, and to the variability in length of prerecordings that impacted student time management.
B. Impact on Cost Savings
Cost saving to the School will come from utilization of modular, online, prerecorded
presentations that can be reused (initially anticipated three years for relatively static material
or 80% of the prerecorded lectures; and one year for 20% of lectures which will cover recent
developments) augmented by updates during active learning sessions to address changes in the
underlying science. This will free faculty time for other purposes in some years, and because
the modules will be exportable interest is anticipated from students taking the course at the
FDA, with whom the school has a large grant for education of Review Chemists. Exporting the
course to students at other schools of pharmacy is also viable and could generate tuition
revenue that could allow the school to sustain and expand this redesign effort.
C. Lessons Learned
1. Pedagogical Improvement Techniques
Faculty report that pre-recording lectures is less stressful than recording in front of a live
audience, and working with an instructional designer has resulted in slides and information
delivery being more focused on core content. Pre-recorded lectures typically employed the use
of an interactive question and answer or interview technique, for the purpose of engaging the
student in complex foundational material. Active learning sessions were added for students to
practice application of difficult concepts. Teaching via prerecorded lectures is a very different
style of teaching compared to face-to-face teaching, which takes time and practice to master to
make the lectures optimally effective. Also, communication with students about the basic
course information such as upcoming activities in a prerecorded format is a very different
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process compared to face-to-face lecturing, and this also takes time to develop. Faculty are
working to improve these interactions in successive iterations of the course.
2. Cost Reduction Strategies
Once pre-recordings were put in place, faculty had more time to devote to formal and informal
interaction with students both individually through posted office hours, and in small group
active learning sessions.
3. Implementation issues
Student feedback may contribute to adjustments in structure of active learning; lectures will be
reviewed and updated every three years for currency.
D. Sustainability
Implementation of Camtasia relay model for in-office recordings will allow for increased
external expertise in the PharmD program as well as the new masters programs in
Pharmacometrics and Regulatory Science.
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