Supplementation of first-year pharmacy immunology course with a YouTube channel to enhance student learning and comprehension (EDU1P.219)

Abstract

Abstract Teaching Immunology course at Pharmacy schools remains an uphill task. Faculty members in colleges and schools of pharmacy engage in numerous techniques to help students develop into knowledgeable practitioners that are critical thinkers, able to problem solve and communicate efficiently. Increased attention is being paid to curricular integration in pharmacy education. The objective of this study was to determine if watching pertinent educational videos, organized on a virtual environment as a channel, supplement the traditional classroom-setting lectures. YouTube videos less than 20 minutes in length were searched for accuracy, relevance, and thoroughness for specified topics discussed in Immunology course. They were than uploaded to a virtual file-sharing site called “Box”. All students enrolled in the course near the end of the semester were given a 10-question Likert-type survey with responses ranging from strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree. Likert-type ordinal scale analysis was completed to determine the amount of support for the primary, secondary, and tertiary endpoints respectively as follows: a) to determine the effectiveness of the channel in students learning Immunology, to determine if students would like the channel continued and created for other courses as well, and if YouTube channel was efficient to host the site. In conclusion, our data shows strong support that videos can successfully supplement a first-year Immunology course.