2008 Volume 34 Issue 4 Pages 311-319
Fourth-year students in the conventional 4-year pharmaceutical education curriculum took part in a trial on advanced problem-based learning (PBL) in preparation for its introduction at higher levels of the 6-year curriculum of pharmaceutical education,which was started in April,2006.Students were divided into 15 groups and the products prepared by each one were evaluated using the same evaluation scale by the audience (instructors and students of other groups) as well as students of the group that made the presentation.Data obtained were subjected to Customer Satisfaction (CS) analysis,which is generally used for market surveys.A case of acute promyelocytic leukemia,typhoid fever,acute myocardial infarction,anaphylactic shock or sigmoid colon cancer was randomly assigned to each group.
The results of a questionnaire survey concerning PBL classes indicated a high level of satisfaction level for many students,but it also revealed problems in conducting PBL,among them the number of students in each group,time of conducting it,and the number of cases.For the scheduling of advanced PBL next year,some of the matters that should therefore be studied are the use of a teaching assistant (TA) system,adjustment of timing of PBL and preparation of additional scenarios.
As a result of the application of the CS analysis method for the assessment of group presentations,problems that would have been overlooked in conventional statistical analysis,such as the mean assessment value,were revealed,indicating the usefulness of the CS analysis method for the assessment of learning efficiency in PBL tutorials.
