Use of PeerWise in a Graduate Physician Assistant Pharmacology Course

Abstract

There are multiple studies that indicate that generating and answering questions can be very beneficial to students in developing analytical skills as well as providing study resources especially for students in health profession programs. Students enrolled in a first‐year Clinical Pharmacology course in a graduate‐level Physician Assistant course were required to write forty multiple choice questions in the PeerWise platform over the course of the semester. Additionally, they were required to answer a minimum of eighty questions submitted by their peers. The students were given detailed instructions on what were acceptable questions. They were also required to include a rational for the correct answer and list a resource that confirmed the correct answer. Upon taking a question, students are required within the program to rate whether they agree with the author’s answer, the level of difficulty of the question, and the quality of the question. Students’ scores for question authoring, answering, rating, and total answers correct were correlated to exam grades. Students’ with lower performance on exams were shown to either not have accessed the PeerWise platform prior to the exam or had reduced interactions with the platform compared to students with higher performance. According to the end‐of‐course evaluation, most students felt that using the platform was useful and helped them to test their understanding of the material.