Comparison of pharmacy student performance in a self-care therapeutics course conducted as a flipped classroom on-campus and remotely

Abstract

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic required the University of Arizona R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy’s Self-Care Therapeutics course to be taught as a synchronous, live online course. The course has traditionally utilized a flipped-classroom to increase student engagement and improve learning performance. The goal of this study is to compare student performance in a flipped-classroom self-care therapeutics course taught to students attending class on-campus versus online via web-conferencing. Methods This study assessed examination performance of 118 students that took the class on-campus in 2019 and 125 students that took the class online in 2020. Course design was similar between the two cohorts, with each completing assigned pre-reading, an associated short multiple-choice quiz, in-class small group discussions and in-class large group faculty-led debrief. Both cohorts took pre-class quizzes and three examinations to assess their knowledge. Exam, quiz, overall class performance, and student experience was compared for the 2019 on-campus attending cohort and the 2020 online attending cohort. Results No statistical differences were seen in the overall exam performance, the final course score, and the student experience between cohorts. Statistical differences (p = 0.02) were found between cohorts for the overall quiz performance, with the on-campus attending cohort performing slightly better than the online attending cohort (mean score of 88% compared to 84.4%). Conclusion Examination performance was similar for students taking a flipped-classroom course online and on-campus. Further research using data from multiple courses or from the same cohort, randomized, is needed to improve the internal and external validity of these findings.

Keywords

• Therapeutics
• Pharmacy students
• Teaching method
• Self-care
• Online learning
• Course performance