Establishing a Distance Learning Site for a Traditional Doctor of Pharmacy Program

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 2003 by Ward, Ceressa T, Rey, Jose A, Mobley, W Cary, Evans, Carsten D W

Nova University in Fort Lauderdale, FIa, initiated the use of distance education in 1972. By 1994, Nova Southeastern University (NSU) had established itself as an institution capable of providing worldwide compressed videoconferencing. Prior to the 1994 merger of Nova University and Southeastern University of the Health Sciences, Southeastern had developed a North Miami site to service its nontraditional, post baccalaureate, Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program in 1991. Due to the students' inability to disrupt their careers and relocate for the purpose of proximity, program enrollment numbers were low. As a result of the request by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education to maintain nontraditional PharmD programs, the university's existing infrastructure, and NSU's mission to utilize technologically innovative delivery systems to provide convenient, high quality education, a distancelearning format was needed. Since the NSU educational philosophy supports a live presentation format, correspondence courses were not an option. Compressed videoconferencing was chosen over satellite broadcast as the delivery system for the PharmD program for 2 essential reasons: its ability to conduct high quality, live, 2-way interaction at a much lower cost and NSU's previous success with this technology in the education department.

Since January 3, 1995, NSU College of Pharmacy (COP) has utilized 2-way interactive compressed videoconferencing technology for instructional delivery of its distance-learning, nontraditional, post baccalaureate, PharmD program to students in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Orlando, Sarasota, Tampa, and West Palm Beach, FIa. The COP's nontraditional program also extends to Ponce and San juan, Puerto Rico. A thorough review of the literature suggests this was the first time that pharmacy education used 2-way live media for instructional delivery to distance sites. To date, NSU's nontraditional, post-baccalaureate PharmD program has successfully graduated over 260 students. The positive experience gained from this initiative prompted the College to consider piloting a distance education program as part of its existing traditional, entry-level, PharmD curriculum in an effort to address the current workforce demands.

Rationale

Since the establishment of this complete videoconference-based traditional, entry-level pharmacy program is the first of its kind, the intentions of this descriptive paper are 5-fold: to outline considerations in the development of the distance site, to describe the distance site facilities, to describe the role of the faculty, to identify the policies and procedures, and to discuss the outcomes and implications discovered in the beginning years of the distance site program.

Development of the Distance Site

West Palm Beach was identified as the distance site location due to a large number of applications from the Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie County area. It was determined that in the event of serious problems or if the West Palm Beach academic environment was not found to be comparable to that of the Fort Lauderdale campus, both sites would be integrated in Fort Lauderdale with minimal logistic and relocation concerns. The actual distance learning site in West Palm Beach was selected by the President of the University and the Dean of the COP based upon available space and existing NSU operations. Prior to the PharmD program, NSU had already established a working relationship with the owners of the office complex. At that time, NSU was leasing space for the WPB administrative office, computer lab, and several graduate programs.