2018 Volume 2 Article ID: 2017-022
In education for pharmaceutical students, the practice of active learning, which is centered the “student” rather than “teacher”, has spread and is being increasingly recognized. Classes incorporating small group discussion (SGD) are conducted at many universities. At present, the evaluation of SGD is mostly conducted using questionnaires involving teachers, peers, and students themselves. When questionnaires are used, data-processing requires time and effort in classes with many students, and so real-time feedback is difficult. In recent years, information and communication technology (ICT) has enabled the analysis of quantitative data instead of questionnaires. Therefore, we conducted peer evaluation by introducing an ICT method for presentation after SGD in practice toward clinical experience in the fourth grade. We found that by applying the ICT method at peer assessment after SGD, we were able to improve student motivation toward SGD and homework in about 70% of students. Furthermore, the photographing of a whiteboard, on which a summary of SGD had been written and used in a presentation, affected motivation toward SGD in over 80% of students. The use of ICT allowed about 80% of students to feel more at ease and teachers to give instant feedback of the results of evaluation by students themselves, and peers. These findings suggest that the use of ICT in peer evaluation could enable students to improve motivation for learning.
