Drag‐a‐Drug: an interactive learning aid to complement pharmacology mnemonics

Abstract

Mnemonics is an established method to help learners consolidate the retention of new information by memory. The use of mnemonics has demonstrated effectiveness in students across different disciplines and levels. An indigenous mnemonics system, pharmABCology, was created and introduced to medical, pharmacy and biomedical sciences students at the university several years ago. While learning outputs of students are enhanced, this mnemonics system takes a rather passive approach of delivering the contents. Thus, a drag-&-drop learning aid, Drag-a-Drug, was developed to incorporate elements of active learning in pharmacology knowledge retention. This learning aid is intended for use after a lecture on a particular topic. The user would first take a part in a short exercise in that s/he is asked to drag & drop items containing drug names to match with corresponding description of the drugs. The layout is presented in a way that also previews the mnemonics that follows after completion of the drag-&-drop exercise. The intended purpose is for the user to first be able to recognise the drug names, mechanisms of actions, and subsequently remember the drug names with the help of mnemonics. This learning aid was offered to two cohorts of Pharmacy students in years 2019 & 2020 as a non-mandatory supplement to the accompanying lecture on anti-dyslipidaemic drugs. Usage data, including number of correct vs. incorrect attempts in the drag-&-drop exercise and view rates of the mnemonics, were recorded on a learning management system (Blackboard®). User feedback was also obtained from 15 students who opted to fill in an optional questionnaire. On a 5-point Likert scale, 13 out of 15 respondents “strongly agreed” or “somewhat agreed” that the drag-&-drop exercise helped them in reviewing basic information about anti-dyslipidaemic drugs. For the mnemonics, 12 out of 15 respondents “strongly agreed” or “somewhat agreed” that memorisation of drug names was facilitated. The overall positive user experience with the Drag-a-Drug learning aid may support its broader coverage and use in other pharmacology topics.