Abstract
Purpose
To determine the relationship of advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) grading schemes and other pharmacy program variables (ie, program age and funding) with pharmacy ...residency match rates.
Summary
A 12-question survey was disseminated to experiential administrators of pharmacy programs in October 2018. Respondents identified their program’s APPE grading scheme (pass/fail, letter grades, or other) and associated pros and cons. Responding programs were categorized by age and funding status. Survey responses were correlated with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists residency match rates for 2016 through 2018. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models as well as by attributes via thematic analysis. Most pharmacy programs (62%) reported using letter grades for APPEs compared to pass/fail (30%) or other (8%) schemes. Pharmacy programs using pass/fail grading were more likely to have students match to postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) (P < 0.001) and postgraduate year 2 (PGY2) (P = 0.0074) residencies. Older pharmacy programs for each grading scheme were more likely to have higher match rates; however, for PGY1 match rates, older programs utilizing letter grades correlated to lower match rates than those utilizing pass/fail grading (P < 0.0001). Likewise, both public and private pharmacy programs using pass/fail grading had higher PGY1 match rates than those using letter grades (P = 0.0006 and P = 0.0014).
Conclusion
Pass/fail grading in APPEs does not hinder PGY1 or PGY2 residency placement compared to other grading schemes both overall and in combination with certain pharmacy program variables. Grading scheme strengths and weaknesses should be considered when deciding on optimal assessment strategies for APPEs and when evaluating candidates for residencies.
Virtual reality is widely recognized as offering the potential for fully immersive environments. This paper introduces a framework that guides the creation and analysis of immersive environments that ...are pedagogically structured to support situated and experiential education. The “situated experiential education environment” framework described in this paper is used to examine the impact that a virtual environment can have on the user experience of participants in a virtual space. The analysis of a virtual environment implemented to support learner exploration of issues of tourism development and the related impacts, suggest that this type of experience is capable of providing participants with a holistic experience of real‐world environments that are otherwise too expensive, impractical, or unethical for large groups of people to visit in person. The pedagogical value of such experiences is enabled through immersion in a reality‐based environment, engagement with complex and ambiguous situations and information, and interaction with the space, other students, and teachers. The results demonstrate that complex immersive learning environments are readily achievable but that high levels of interactivity remain a challenge.
Lay Description
What is already known about this topic:
Virtual reality (VR) technology is developing rapidly with interest from practitioners and researchers increasing concurrently.
Although VR headsets are extensively researched in a gaming context, there is insufficient research examining the user‐experience of VR headsets in the context of education.
What this paper adds:
Users reported a multitude of positive features of the VR headsets in the context of experiential learning that is situated in a meaningful context, such as a Pacific island when learning about sustainable development.
In particular, a strong sense of immersion was reported by users of the VR headsets.
Additionally, the complexity of the material studied, an important feature of situated experiential learning, was also reported to high.
Implications for practice and/or policy:
VR headsets provide significant opportunities to foster situated experiential learning in a virtual environment
Particularly the immersive experience and the complexity of the material studied were reported to be effective with the VR headsets. However, the interaction with other learners and teachers could not be examined in depth, although interaction is also an important feature of situated experiential learning
Evidence suggests that both pharmacy students and preceptors are struggling in the experiential setting. Underlying this phenomenon is a potential interconnected and cyclic set of behaviors being ...reinforced between students and preceptors. These behaviors can contribute to or are the result of higher levels of burnout and a decrease in the development of student clinical skills and subsequent performance on rotation. In this review, the authors investigate various challenges commonly encountered in the experiential environment. These challenges can range from an observed decrease in student engagement, motivation, and critical thinking skills to an increase in preceptor burnout and culture shifts in the clinical practice environments. These factors all ultimately impact patient care and overall student performance. For each challenge identified, strategies will be presented that can be implemented by students, preceptors, and pharmacy programs to break the cyclic pattern identified.
Purpose
Service-learning (SL) is a widely accepted pedagogy that can enrich the learning experience for students in higher education while they apply their skills in a meaningful community service. ...This research is part of a larger project that aimed to motivate educational achievement among youths living in a priority neighborhood through SL. Toward this goal, this study investigated the impact of SL on the college students from a college information technology programmer-analyst (ITPA) program, who were deployed as role models to youths in a priority neighborhood on the east coast of Canada.
Design/methodology/approach
The overall project used the design-based methodology. Seven college students were deployed in two phases to a community center as role models for the delivery of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (or STEAM) programs to youths living in a priority neighborhood. Data were collected using open-ended survey, journal entries and focus groups and was qualitatively analyzed by drawing on two frameworks: the experiential-learning framework by Kolb (1984) and the conceptual SL framework by Ash and Clayton (2009).
Findings
The findings describe the outcome of the college students' experiences in SL with respect to the development of skills and capacities needed by employers. Specifically, their experiences mirrored all aspects of the two frameworks applied. Therefore, the study validates the use of SL pedagogy in higher education. In addition, the study identified the role of SL as an integration strategy for international students. While the research contributes to the wider SL conversation for policymakers, faculty and administrators of higher education, it also promotes development opportunities for college students.
Originality/value
The integration of SL pedagogy is widespread among programs in higher education. However, there are no common SL frameworks used in literature. The study is novel in that it combines two theoretical frameworks – Kolb (1984) and Ash and Clayton (2009) in explaining the outcomes. In addition, it uses two high-impact educational practices – SL and role modeling to improve educational attainment for college students.
The article describes a project about ‘experiential education’ at a school in Germany. The main educational objective is to offer an alternative way of teaching pupils who show destructive and ...aggressive behaviour. After a critical analysis of the concept of experiential education with regard to its educational relevance, the conceptual design and implementation of the project is presented. The experiences gained through participant observation and interviews can be interpreted in such a way that pupils with behavioural problems can gain a new, different access to themselves through special movement- and social-related activities, an outcome which has positive effects on social behaviour in the class and school climate in general and working behaviour in subject lessons specifically.
The Seeding East Buffalo Fellowship (SEBF) program, co-founded by community and academic organizations from Buffalo, NY in 2022, supported residents in Buffalo’s Black neighborhoods to grow their ...own food, emerge as urban agriculture (UA) leaders, and engage in and advocate for UA policy. This article reflects on the lessons learned from this pilot program. The authors, all of whom are either co-founders or team members of the SEBF program, drew from field notes and qualitative interviews with SEBF growers in this article. Key lessons for policy change are that programs must be rooted in the community’s history, pedagogical strategies must be tailored to the local context, and long-term relationships must be fostered. . . .
