Curricular integration to enhance educational outcomes

Integration of a pharmacy curriculum can enhance learning by structuring experiences so that students apply information and skills from a variety of domains-pharmaceutical sciences, clinical sciences, applied therapeutics, and practice experience-to solve problems. Successful curricular integration is accomplished by applying principles of instructional systems design and abilities-based learning. Faculty from different disciplines must work together to focus on desired student performance, to view the curriculum as a system, and to assess students' abilities rather than their information recall. These approaches, while enhancing opportunities for effective learning and faculty collaboration, are difficult to design and implement. This paper discusses applying instructional design strategies to curricular integration, viewing the curriculum as a system, applying abilities-based learning strategies for curricular sequencing, and assessing student performance.