The Relentless Pursuit of Excellence in Pharmacy Education

Those of you who know me well, know that I try to approach life with a sense of humor. As this is a time for serious discussion, I have struggled a bit in considering how to address the House of Delegates to present my presidential priorities for 2013-2014. When I contemplated my speech, I hoped to be inspirational and eloquent, sharing remarks that would be memorable. However, the needed inspiration to achieve these lofty goals escaped me. So, I turned to an author and philosopher who I have admired throughout my life: Snoopy. Unfortunately, he wasn't very helpful. I chose as the theme for 2013-2014, "the relentless pursuit of excellence." Throughout my career in academic pharmacy, schools and colleges of pharmacy have been leaders on their campuses as well as leaders in training healthcare professionals. We have always been about excellence in pharmacy education. Academic pharmacy is at the crossroads of many avenues of change. Change is sometimes disruptive in nature. Areas of change include the continuing evolution of pharmacy as a profession, massive changes underway in how and to whom healthcare is delivered in America, and rapid change in higher education. This includes both the demand for greater accountability in higher education and innovation in delivery models to individualize and improve student learning as well as to increase access to learning. We live in a time where change is the new constant, and we must continue to strive for excellence in all that we do. As I framed my priorities for the coming year, it was important to me that we build on the impressive work inspired by the presidential priorities of those who have gone before me. Our first priority area of excellence is technology-based education delivery. The 2012-2013 Argus Commission studied "game changers" likely to influence pharmacy education. A major theme of their report is the use of instructional technology to its fullest capability to create better instruction and to develop and use analytics for guiding and directing faculty members and students. The New Media Consortium's 2013 Higher Education Report identifies 3 technologies in particular that have garnered significant interest within the Academy as areas warranting further study: * The first is massively open online courses or MOOCs. This technology has the potential to provide educational resources to a broad audience at high efficiency and reduced cost. This makes MOOCS extremely appealing to institutions during times of economic recession and reduced federal and state support for higher education. MOOCs have also generated a great deal of concern across higher education. * The second technology is gamification. Gamification incorporates elements of games into academic activities with the goal of increasing student interest, motivation, and engagement with the content. In a gamified curriculum, students accept challenges for points or other rewards and often have significant freedom in choosing what kind of assignments they undertake to achieve the desired outcomes. * The third technology is learning analytics, the field that deciphers trends and patterns from education and student-related data to advance personalized learning. Student-specific data can be used for purposes that include tailoring learning platforms and guiding students to additional learning resources. To provide direction on how academic pharmacy can achieve excellence in technology-enabled education and to elaborate on the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy's (AACP) role in the development of new educational resources, technologies and learning models, the Academic Affairs Committee, led by Jeff Cain, University of Kentucky, is charged to consider the question: What is AACP's role in assisting schools and colleges of pharmacy in implementing new and emerging educational technologies? In addition to MOOCs, gaming, and analytics, this group is asked to explore: * Recognition within the promotion and tenure process for faculty members who are innovators in advancing technology-enabled education * How accreditation standards revision can support innovation in technology-enabled learning and assessment models Our second priority area of excellence is technician training. …