Abstract:

Introduction:
As pharmacy education has increasingly adopted an integrated, competency-based, patient-centred focus, pharmacy educators have needed to find innovative teaching, learning, and assessment methods to reflect this. This is particularly challenging for material delivered online, such as in the case of the National Pharmacy Internship Programme in Ireland. This one-year Master's level programme is the mandatory fifth and final year undertaken by all pharmacy students in Ireland prior to qualification as pharmacists and is delivered as a blended learning course, combining workplace-based learning, six online taught modules, a research module, and a small number of face-to-face training days. When designing the assessment strategy for the programme, the goals were to develop authentic assessments that would enable students to demonstrate their skills and competence, in both group and individual activities. Drawing on the well-established benefits of case-based learning, and video-based cases in promoting engagement, it was decided to develop a series of video-based case studies to form the basis of the assessment for the six taught modules.

Methods:
A standard approach to developing the video cases was agreed. Module coordinators developed a script for a five-minute case-study aligned to the learning outcomes of their module, and the competency framework used in the Programme (the Core Competency Framework for Pharmacists). A professional video production company and professional actors were engaged for the development of the videos. Six video-case studies of approximately five-minute duration were produced, and an assessment relating to the video was created. Students were given three weeks to complete the assessment (in groups or individually depending on the module). In order to establish if the video case assessments had achieved the goal of delivering an authentic and engaging form of assessment, the students' perspectives on the video cases were evaluated as part of the end of programme evaluation.

Results:
The student evaluation feedback indicated (averaged over the last two years) indicated that 86% of students felt that the video case studies allowed them to apply knowledge/skills in a practical way. A further 82% felt the cases were presented in a realistic way. Additionally 87% felt the cases were presented in a clear way. Finally, 87% felt they could identify the characters’ emotions.

Conclusions:
While case-based learning has a well-established position in pharmacy education, this study demonstrated that an innovative approach using video-based cases for assessment represents an opportunity to extend this further. The video case studies provided the opportunity to develop more authentic assessments that reflected the students' level of study, and allowed the application of skill and demonstration of competence in a patient-centred manner. Educators in other fields should consider adopting this approach when aiming to assess students in an authentic and engaging manner while assessing online, particularly at postgraduate level.

Keywords:

Video, case-based, assessment, postgraduate, pharmacy.