(143) Trends in Students’ Scores in an Asynchronous Pharmacy Calculations Course

Objective : Investigate the comprehensive final examination score trend among first-year students who are enrolled in an asynchronous pharmacy calculation course, analyzing how students’ success has changed over time and identifying factors that may be associated with the students’ pharmacy calculations performance.

Methods: Final examination grades from an asynchronous first-year pharmacy calculation course at Western University of Health Sciences were collected from 2019 to 2023. Student performance over time was trended by comparing scores among different class years. Additionally, undergraduate GPAs, school type, and the number of repeated courses and HSRT scores were collected and analyzed to examine their associations with performance on the exam.

Results: In total, 456 students were analyzed. Final exam scores revealed a statistically significant gradual decline from the class of 2022 to the class of 2026 (p <.05). Furthermore, there is a correlation between final exam scores and overall GPA (rs=.257), science GPA (rs=.258), math GPA (rs=.286), overall GPA recalculated (rs=.258), science GPA recalculated (rs=.251), number of repeated courses (rs=-.192), and Health Science Reasoning Test score (rs=.214) (p <.05 for all). There is no statistically significant correlation between the final exam scores with undergraduate school type (p>.05).

Conclusions: There has been a decrease in students’ calculation performance suggesting a need for redesigning asynchronous calculation classes. Educators must come up with more effective teaching styles and activities to address this decline. Strategies were implemented and will be assessed once completed. Additionally, by analyzing predictors, pharmacy schools may identify those students at risk of underperformance and provide them with necessary academic advising and individualized support plans. Given the consistency of the asynchronous course, the performance trend may also predict the overall preparedness of students entering pharmacy school.