As a pharmacy student nine years ago, Michelle Fravel was not always sure that sitting in an auditorium for hours listening to lectures was the best way to learn and prepare for her professional career.
Now a University of Iowa Clinical Assistant Professor of Applied Clinical Sciences, Fravel has an opportunity to impact the next generation of students by implementing a case-based, active learning approach in the Pharmacotherapy course series as part of the college’s Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree.
“Professor Fravel’s course is on the leading edge of active learning for students in our professional program” says Gary Milavetz, Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Applied Clinical Science.
When Fravel began as the course coordinator four years ago, Pharmacotherapy was taught in a traditional large-lecture format: 100-plus students in an auditorium, listening to two-hour lectures. Occasionally clicker questions and case studies were incorporated, but otherwise students weren’t asked to actively engage during class time.
“Students got information,” Fravel says, “but they weren’t getting the stepwise process to apply their knowledge.”
Fravel and her colleagues decided to change the approach by emphasizing intensive case study and frequent in-class activities that require students to apply what they have learned by formulating patient care plans. Because some of the work required students to engage more deeply in course content through discussion and teamwork, numerous curricular adjustments were needed to fit lecture, in-class activities, teamwork, discussion, and quizzes into an 80-minute class period. And now the course is taught in a classroom with u-shaped tables and plenty of whiteboards, a setting that facilitates engagement among students and with instructors.
The Pharmacotherapy faculty also responded to suggestions from students.
“One student asked us to mix up the teams,” Fravel says, “and the student even shared an article on educational best practice that indicated people learn better when their learning environment changes.”
For Fravel, the new active-learning format provides student engagement she did not experience when she taught the course in a lecture hall—or when she was a student herself.
“It’s so refreshing to walk around the tables and hear the active discussion about the topics you want them to learn about,” she says. “And I’ve had a number of students tell me they are learning more than they ever have before.”
“It’s so refreshing to walk around the tables and hear the active discussion about the topics you want them to learn about,” she says. “And I’ve had a number of students tell me they are learning more than they ever have before.”
The college also is pleased with the results. Says Clinical Professor of Applied Clinical Sciences and Associate Dean for Professional Education Michael Kelly, “We are gaining valuable experience using these active approaches to learning that will enrich our new collegiate curriculum.”