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

In creating this pioneer program, a group of faculty and staff were responsible for ensuring a professional presence and learning environment at the distance site. Weekly meetings between the WPB faculty members, NSU administrators, and staff from the Office of Information Technology (O1T) were held during the months prior to and just after the arrival of the students to discuss the needs and progress of the program. To guarantee the timely completion of the distance learning site, deadlines for space allocation, purchases (eg, furniture, equipment), remodeling, and equipment installation were created. The faculty visited the WPB facility to identify potential space for a primary classroom, secondary classrooms, study rooms, an office suite with a reception area, a compounding laboratory, and a drug information and resource center. In selecting suitable rooms for class instruction, physical components such as size, configuration, location, and the number of students were taken into consideration. Engineers and members of OIT were consulted to evaluate and make recommendations regarding classroom acoustics, lighting, environmental factors (eg, temperature, humidity levels), the necessary amount of electrical output, and the necessary audiovisual equipment (Figure 1).13,14

Distance Site Facilities

In the WPB Pharmacy Program, students attend lectures in a 1500-square-foot multimedia classroom intended to accommodate 60 students and equipped to serve both as a distance (receiver) and local (sender) site. Lecturers have the ability to deliver material with the use of a computer, a document camera, a Smartboard, a videocassette recorder (VCR), and/or a digital video disk (DVD) player, all of which can be manipulated with either a control panel (Crestron) or a remote keypad (PictureTel). Provision of multiple technologies gives the professor flexibility in developing their own approach for instructional delivery.5 The professor, the lecture material (eg, slides), or both are transmitted for viewing by the students, on either a large screen located at the front of the room or one of the 2 ceiling mounted television monitors in the mid-section of the room. The professor or the computer technician has the ability to switch between images of the lecturer and the lecture material, if necessary. Two television monitors are also floor mounted at the front of the room for the purpose of allowing the lecturer to view students at the remote site(s). Questions and classroom discussions are conducted with the use of a handheld, lavaliere, and/or strategically placed ceiling microphones. (Figure 2) A second multimedia classroom with 2-way video conferencing capability is assigned for "virtual" office hours and elective courses. Furthermore, the site provides the students with multiple designated study rooms, a computer laboratory with 22 workstations, and a student lounge.

In order to provide the West Palm Beach students with practical experience similar to that of the Fort Lauderdale campus, a compounding laboratory was built to coincide with the students' first year pharmaceutics course, The compounding laboratory was constructed from an existing 22' by 34' room in the of= flee complex, The laboratory, which is designed to accommodate 20 students in an optimal traffic flow pattern, is equipped with five 8' by 3.5' compounding stations, 4 sinks, an emergency shower and eyewash station, and abundant storage space. Each station is equipped with standard compounding equipment and electronic and torsion balances. An 18' by 6' room, offset from the compounding lab, has been redesigned for storage shelving and computer workstations for prescription labeling.