Design and students' perceptions of a virtually facilitated outpatient pharmacy practice laboratory course

Web conferencing, interactive video conferencing, and classroom and lecture capture are widely used in pharmacy education. This study aimed to determine student pharmacists' receptiveness to a virtually facilitated outpatient pharmacy practice laboratory course.

A new course design was implemented for a first-year (P1) laboratory course utilizing Zoom, an internet-based "cloud" video and chat conference room, for communication across two campuses. Physical campus attendance and Zoom connection were required for each laboratory session. Students voluntarily and anonymously completed a survey at course start and conclusion to evaluate course design and impact on student learning.

The pre-survey was completed by 77 students (82%) and 82 students completed the post-survey (87%). Students agreed or strongly agreed that virtual facilitation did not hinder learning and disagreed or strongly disagreed that a facilitator needs to be physically present to simplify learning. Students concluded there is no difference in virtual or in person facilitator communication. While students agreed the experience enabled development of problem-solving skills and fostered self-awareness and responsibility for self-learning, this was not statistically significant.

These results provide insight into students' perceptions of a virtually facilitated laboratory course design. This may be an alternative to live facilitation without impacting student development in the areas of problem solving, self-awareness, and responsibility for self-learning. Schools and colleges of pharmacy might consider virtual laboratory facilitation as an innovative course design.