Tao Zhang and BiâÂÂBotti C. Youan
Objective: The perceptions and satisfaction of pharmacy students with a Fall 2009 Physical Pharmacy Lab focusing on pH and drug properties (e.g. solubility, Ionization, partition coefficient etc..) were studied in order to evaluate if the teaching method was meaningful and effective to the students, and to describe the necessity of incorporating a lab section in Physical Pharmacy course.
Methods: A pre‐lab quiz was administered to 109 students before the course and a course evaluation was administered to each student at the conclusion of the course. Students’ responses on five variables, namely Satisfaction, Learning and examination, Future alternatives, Overall assessment, and Test improvement
were gathered and evaluated using a 5‐point Likert scale. Data were analyzed using Excel 2007. To further evaluate if the learning objective had been achieved, the students’ lab grades were compared with pre‐lab quiz scores.
Results: Overall 4 out of the 5 lab sessions were graded above 3.0 (Good) on a 1‐5 scale (5 being Excellent) basis. Regarding future alternative options of the course, the only option with major support (agrees and strongly agree> 50%) was “Practical lab only” (55.41%). The students’ understanding on topics related to pH and drug
properties was improved by 43% as shown by improvement on test score. The improvements between the pre‐lab score and final lab score were statistically significant (P<0.05).
Conclusion: This specific laboratory course was found to effectively help students fortify the ideas they learned in classroom and it was welcomed by most of students. The strategy of combining lecture with lab practice proved to be effective and meaningful in physical pharmacy education.
