Development and evaluation of computer-based tutorials in biochemistry and medicinal chemistry

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education,  Spring 1998  by Harrold, Marc W,  Newton, Gail D

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During the past two years, computer-based tutorials were developed and evaluated as instructional tools in biochemistry and medicinal chemistry courses. The tutorials, which review and encourage application of key concepts within these subject areas, were developed using the authoring software program ToolBook. The tutorials are tailored to the instructor's courses and allow students to work at their own pace. Unlike traditional study resources (i.e., textbooks and lecture notes), these computer tutorials contain embedded questions which allow students to actively apply concepts to novel situations. Feedback in the form of text, structures, and diagrams provides students with an immediate assessment of their understanding of each topic. The tutorials were made available in the School's Pharmacy and Computer Resource Center. Additionally, copies of the tutorial, packaged along with runtime versions of the software, were distributed to students who owned or had access to an off-campus, Intel-based computer. Assessment of the tutorials was conducted using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. To date, enhancement of student examination performance has not been demonstrated; however, the length and manner in which students used the tutorials may have prevented the detection of real performance differences across user and nonuser groups. Future studies will address these areas. Despite the above results, qualitative evaluation of student perceptions of the tutorials' utility have been overwhelmingly positive and interest in using the tutorials has increased steadily over the past two years.

INTRODUCTION

Recent trends in pharmaceutical education have been driven at least in part by reports from the Commission to Implement Change in Pharmaceutical Education. One such change which has resulted from the Commission's Background Paper II(1) is an increased curricular emphasis on development of thinking abilities. These skills have been identified as essential for the provision of pharmaceutical care, enabling entry-level practitioners to logically and analytically solve patient problems and recommend appropriate therapeutic interventions. Additionally, the Focus Group on Liberalization of the Professional Curriculum(2) has emphasized the importance of shifting the role of students from passive to active learners. Such a shift requires the development of active learning tools within individual courses and the curriculum as a whole.

Computer-based training (CBT) and technology are rapidly transforming higher education by expanding capabilities for both teaching and learning. At the university level, commercially available computer-based media are available for numerous disciplines including medicine, music and dance, history, writing, literature, and economics(3). Within pharmacy education, CBT programs have also been developed for a variety of subject areas. Reports of CBT applications within courses for drug literature and information(4,5), pharmacokinetics(6,7), nonprescription drugs (8), self-care(9), clinical simulations(10), clinical problem solving skills(1 ) and evaluation of drug studies(12) have previously been reported in the Journal and elsewhere. While computer-based material may initially seem mechanical and impersonal, there is abundant evidence that students regard such material as being highly personal and helpful. In a recent publication, Brimberry and Riffee(13) evaluated students' attitudes towards computers as platforms for active learning. Using a computer-based learning environment within a pharmacology laboratory, the authors found that students had an open-minded attitude towards active learning, and a positive attitude toward computer-based learning.

Computer-based training also has the potential to address a crucial concern within the pharmaceutical sciences: while information within these disciplines continues to expand, class time and credit hours have, for the most part, stayed the same. As a result, educators must find efficient and attractive methods other than traditional lectures to deliver instruction to students. For example, biochemistry and medicinal chemistry courses strive to help students understand drug binding, the mechanisms of drug action, and the influence of chemical structure on distribution, binding and action. In order to do this. it is essential for students to have a reasonable working knowledge of organic chemistry. Unfortunately, there are often significant time lapses between organic chemistry, biochemistry and medicinal chemistry courses. Moreover, time constraints prevent the broad-based review and summation which is most helpful in encouraging long-term retention of the concepts taught in these classes.

Based on these factors, CBT tutorials were developed for both biochemistry and medicinal chemistry courses. The course instructor chose to develop the tutorials rather than pursue a commercially available software package for two reasons. First and foremost, a self-developed tutorial allowed the instructor to emphasize the most important and/ or challenging aspects of these courses. Second, the instructor believed that his students were more likely to use a tutorial which was specifically tailored to the course as opposed to a commercially available product. This opinion was based on responses to previous assignments where students had to sift through supplemental readings to find the pertinent information. These tutorials were created to review and reinforce concepts important for the understanding and application of information taught in the lecture portions of these courses. While the lectures in these courses primarily build on the knowledge students are supposed to have mastered in previous courses, the tutorials contain a more in-depth review of new material as well as basic chemical concepts which the students may have forgotten. In this manner. students have the opportunity to enhance their understanding and retention of specific subject areas. The tutorials were both interactive and sensitive to the responses of the learner, two properties which Merrill et al.(14) have identified as being essential for CBT. Flexible navigation allowed for learners to review the areas of greatest interest to them. Additionally, the feedback provided for both correct and incorrect responses helped guide students to appropriate review areas. Development, implementation and evaluation of the biochemistry and medicinal chemistry tutorials began during the Fall 1995 and Spring 1996 semesters, respectively. Revisions based on preliminary evaluation data where instituted in subsequent offerings of these courses.