(44) Enhancing Course Content Review: Two Activities Rooted in Backward Design for an Integrated Pharmacotherapy Course

Objective : Summarize the development process of creating two novel course content review activities (a comprehensive study guide and in-person review activity) and assess their usefulness.

Methods: Using previous continuous quality improvement (CQI) data, two novel content review activities were created using backward design. A study guide prepared by the course coordinator team consisted of a list of minimum-competency learning objectives for each topic within each course module. A team-based learning (TBL)-style activity comprised of a series of true-or-false questions was derived from the objectives of the study guide. One hundred and sixteen students answered 142 questions individually and as a team and then corrected all “false” statements. Surveys examined students’ perceptions of these activities and coordinators’ opinions about the study guide. Comprehensive final exam (CFE) performance was compared to previous years.

Results: CFE performance remained consistent, but the number of students not reaching minimum competency was reduced from 3 to only 1 student. Ninety-eight percent (108/N=110) of students used the study guide to prepare for the CFE; of these students, 92% (99/108) found it useful. Course coordinators spent between 1 and 5 hours creating the study guide. All coordinators who responded to the survey (100%, 6/6) felt the study guide was a useful tool for students. Ninety-two percent (101/110) of students found the TBL-style activity useful.

Conclusions: Providing a study guide and review activity resulted in modest improvement in reaching the minimum competency score. There was overwhelming consensus from students that these two activities were useful. Course CQI proved helpful in identifying this opportunity and will be used to revise the activity for the next offering.