Pharmacology made radiant! – Implementation of novel, fun-filled and colourful activities to promote active learning inside the classroom
Creators: name: Divyashanthi C.M
name: Niraimathi  Manickam
name: Arunkumar  Karthikeyan
name: Meyyappadevan  Rajagopal
Publisher: name: F1000 Research Limited
Year: 2023

description: <b>Background</b><br> Pharmacology, the indispensable subject for a physician, is contemplated by medical students as arduous, as it is loaded with numerous drug names, complex mechanisms and varied adverse drug reactions that are hardly memorised and poorly recollected. Students of this modern era also find conventional teaching-learning methods less attractive. With the firm intention to change the misconception and to kindle their interest to learn, with minimal resources, we implemented interactive, fun-filled and colourful activities at the end of the lecture class to aid active learning and better retention of the subject.<br> <b>Summary Of Work</b><br> Students of II MBBS (n= 55) were involved. At the end of the lecture class on core topics, 10 to 15 minutes were allotted for activities. The resources used were crayons, coloured pencils, sketch pens and white paper. The individual or group tasks were meticulously planned and executed systematically. <b>“Cushingartoonz” </b>– This activity was executed at the end of the lecture on corticosteroids. The team had to draw their favourite cartoon character and change it to a cushingoid to depict all the adverse effects of steroids from head to toe. <b>“Handful of pharmacology</b> “- After completing two lectures on antimalarial drugs, students were instructed to create a colourful poster with the outline of their palm as a template and to fill in the five essential drug combinations in each finger and the take-home message in the palm area. "<b>Clay-based mini modelling - The Lilliputians</b>" was conducted following the lectures on drug receptors and signalling. The students made miniature 3D models of drug receptors using pieces of coloured clay. "<b>Ball and balloon - Are they only for kids?" -</b>This fun-filled activity was with balls and balloons to mimic the uterus and the foetus. The drugs acting on various segments of the uterus were demonstrated using these. <b>It is Story -time! - </b>This activity followed the lectures on antipsychotics. Each<b> </b>group had to imagine and write their own story of a patient treated with an antipsychotic drug, the adverse effects encountered, and its management. <b>"Pharmacology Gamified " -</b>This online game activity collection was executed during the pandemic using Kahoot. it! Platform. These activities used colours as the theme and were named "Are we Redii?', "Bluetiful", Blacknificient" etc<b> </b> The best three Cushing cartoons/hand posters/ clay models /stories were rewarded. The feedback from students regarding these activities was obtained using a questionnaire sent through Google Forms. <b>Summary Of Results</b><br> 92.3 % of students reflected that these activities are fun-filled, 93% felt these had improved their learning, 73 % felt that time constraint is the limiting factor,96 % said it broke the monotony and boredom, aided in better retention and welcomed these in future classes<br> <b>Discussion And Conclusion</b><br> Students strongly encourage classroom activity-based learning, and these methods will change the pharmacology teaching and learning trend. Hence, creating and implementing such innovative learning activities is the need of the day in medical education.<br> <b>Take Home Message</b><br> Finding ways to make learning enjoyable is essential in today’s modern era. These experiential and interactive approaches enhance student engagement, comprehension, and retention of complex medical concepts. These Activity-based learning methods are simple, cost-effective and flexible to be modified according to the needs of the GenZ students.