Analyses of course features, student study behaviors, and outcomes in a medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology course suggest multiple targets for increasing learning and retention
Creators: name: Scotti, Anita
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2019

description: Purpose: Efforts to evaluate and improve components of the Doctor of Pharmacy program at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy are an ongoing part of its curricular transformation. Molecular Foundations of Drug Action (MFDA) is a transformed first-semester course delivering pharmaceutical science and clinical application activities using a flipped-classroom model: pre-class preparation involves watching video lectures and in-class time is spent on concept clarification and problem-solving. The focus of this project was differentiation of MFDA from the legacy courses it subsumed (Phase 1) and identification of those course features and self-reported student behaviors most strongly linked to deep learning and durable, flexible retention (Phase 2).Methods:  For Phase 1, a retrospective review of 1,600 total official student course evaluations from the three-course legacy medicinal chemistry sequence and from the MFDA replacement course yielded five consistently polled dimensions rated on five-point Likert scales (quality of course organization, utility of in-class activities, representativeness of assessment content, degree of challenge to think deeply, and overall course rating). Mean ratings, standard deviations, and unpaired t-tests of significance (alpha set at 0.05) were calculated for each dimension. For Phase 2, actual or reported time spent watching MFDA video lectures, time spent on various study activities (watch-summarize-question analyses, practicing retrieval, writing summaries, creating media, teaching self, or teaching others), and time spent in various study modes (massed, distributed, blocked, interleaved, the sum of massed and blocked, or the sum of distributed and interleaved) were correlated with performance on select assessments (mini exam, midterm exam, final exam, overall course, and capstone grades) via linear regression with r squared.Results:  In Phase 1, MFDA was rated significantly higher than the medicinal chemistry legacy courses in aggregate on three of the five dimensions examined (utility of activities, p of 0.01; representativeness of assessments, p of 0.008; and degree of challenge, p less than 0.001). In Phase 2, actual watch time determined by the video software was a better positive predictor of overall course grade than student-reported watch time. As expected, due to intentional constructive alignment, grades from the mini exams, midterm exam, final exam, overall course, and capstone grades were all positively correlated. Practicing retrieval, creating media, and teaching others were more often positively correlated with performance than were other activities. Also, massed study and blocked study modes provided almost no benefit to performance, while distributed and interleaved study modes proved to be positively correlated with performance. Finally, students who performed at the top of the class in MFDA (i.e. earned As) reported spending nearly twice as much time on each of the most beneficial study activities and modes than those who performed at the bottom of the class (i.e. earned Cs and Fs).Conclusion:  The Molecular Foundations of Drug Action course purposefully incorporated clinical application activities, assured representativeness of assessment items, and encouraged deep thinking, which were all seen to have positive effects on course evaluation. MFDA also provided instruction in evidence-based study techniques. Where applied by students, activities supported by educational literature were more often associated with higher performance on proximal, medial, and distal assessments of learning and retention. Future iterations of the course ought to structurally recruit the benefits of retrieval practice, creating concept maps, teaching others to solidify one’s own learning, and of distributed or interleaved study for better student outcomes.