A SWOT Analysis of Pharmacy Students’ Perspectives on e-Learning Based on a Narrative Review

Abstract

Background: Online education became the new normal during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the number of studies exploring the potential advantages/disadvantages of e-learning in pharmacy courses is limited. Study aim: to propose a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of e-learning according to pharmacy students’ perspectives. Methods: A narrative review was conducted to examine student pharmacist perspectives on e-learning. Results: Diverse strengths and weaknesses (internal environment) and opportunities and threats (external environment) were identified, which were grouped into categories, such as (1) students’ well-being (e.g., access to classes anywhere vs. students’ psychological or physical disorders); (2) teachers and materials (e.g., more diverse/interesting audiovisual materials vs. too challenging materials); (3) technologies (e.g., new education strategies, such as gamification vs. barriers in the access to the internet); (4) classes/training (e.g., more versatile/immediate classes vs. eventual presence of other persons during online classes); and (5) faculty/school of pharmacy (e.g., availability of technical support). Conclusion: Overall, online education seems to be suitable for pharmacy students, although diverse challenges should be addressed, such as the well-being of students or lack of standards. Pharmacy schools should regularly identify/define and implement measures to reinforce opportunities and strengths as well as to solve threats and weaknesses.

Keywords

• SWOT analysis
• e-learning
• education
• students’ perspectives
• pharmacy
• students’ well-being