Assessing Female Pharmacy Students' Satisfaction with Active Learning Techniques at King Saud University

Abstract

Background: Studies conducted in Saudi Arabia assess student's perception towards using the flipped classroom or audience response system (ARS) separately, none integrated the two strategies. This study aims to evaluate pharmacy students at King Saud University - college of pharmacy's perceptions of student engagement and satisfaction with audience response system (ARS), and the flipped classroom techniques.

Methods: Two lecture topics were flipped and delivered to female students enrolled in the pharmacy practice lab course at the university. An audience response system was integrated into the flipped classroom. The satisfaction of the students was measured using an online questionnaire. They then rated their satisfaction on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Results: Overall, 82.1% of the students stated that the ARS made the class better; 71.64% agreed that taking a course in a flipped classroom was a useful learning experience. Online questionnaire revealed that the ARS fostered students' thinking skills and peers' interaction. Many students report that the flipped classroom made them evaluate their learning processes and pace themselves according to their speed, time, and level of interest. Students, however, stated that technical issues and time-consuming tasks were a downside to these teaching strategies.

Conclusion: Although the students' overall response to the use of ARS and flipped classroom techniques was positive; limited class time hindered students from achieving the full benefits reaped from these strategies. Therefore, as per our study's results, modifying the duration of the class to ensure it is not too short to be overwhelming can help instructors utilize these startegies in the best possible manner. Alternatively, a thorough and pre-emptive selection of familiar discussion topics ahead of time would also help in this regard.

Keywords: active learning; audience response system; flipped classroom; healthcare education; pharmacy students.

Figure 1

The flipped classroom format. The flipped classroom begins one week before the class by supplementing students with reading materials to the LMS. Students were grouped according to their level of knowledge acquired from reading the uploaded studying materials, and the topic was divided into sections for each group to read and explain later. They were then given 25 minutes of in-class reading to allow all students to read and engage with group members, followed by 3 minutes of presenting the assigned section to the rest of the class. In the class, the instructor evaluated the students’ understanding by asking MCQs to be answered with ARSs.