Effect of Collaborative vs Noncollaborative Quizzes on Examination Scores in a Pharmaceutical Calculations Course

Abstract

To determine if midterm and final examination scores in a pharmaceutical calculations course differ among students who take weekly quizzes collaboratively, noncollaboratively, or half-collaboratively/half-noncollaboratively ("mixed"). One hundred twenty-three students enrolled in one of 4 laboratory sections: collaborative, noncollaborative, or mixed sections. Students working noncollaboratively completed a 15-minute quiz at the end of weekly laboratories. Students working collaboratively were randomly allocated into groups of 4 and worked independently for 5 minutes before working collaboratively for 10 minutes. Students in mixed sections worked collaboratively during one half of the semester and noncollaboratively during the other half of the semester in a crossover design to control for order effect. All students took midterm and final examinations independently. Mean scores for a pretest did not significantly differ between the 4 laboratory sections at the study's onset. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant multivariate effect for the 9 laboratory quizzes in relation to group assignment. Mean scores on the midterm examination did not significantly differ between collaborative and noncollaborative groups. On the final examination, the two mixed groups significantly outperformed the collaborative group, but did not significantly differ from one another or from the noncollaborative group. Peer collaboration improves quiz scores, is favorably perceived by students and enhances their course satisfaction, but does not improve subsequent performance on midterm and final examinations taken noncollaboratively.