Abstract:

Introduction. Higher education shifted to remote learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic during the academic year 2019-2020 and university teachers were forced to rapidly adapt their teaching methodology. The main objective of this work was to study the adaptation process from face-to-face to digital teaching and its influence on the students’ academic achievement.

Methods. The study was conducted during the academic years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 in a group of students of 198 and 200, respectively. The chosen subject was Pharmaceutical Technology I, a compulsory subject worth 12 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) that is taught in the 4th year of the degree in Pharmacy and the Double degree in Pharmacy and Human Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Valencia. It should be noted that the practical component of this subject represents 3.5 ECTS. A self-designed anonymous survey and the mark obtained by students in the mid-term exam were used as measuring tools.

Results. In March 2020, thanks to a laborious coordination and personal effort, we adapted seminars, tutorial sessions, laboratory practices and theoretical classes of our subject to the distance learning. In this sense, recorded theory units together with synchronous videoconferences and additional support material were used. When the students were asked about the online methodology used in the theoretical classes of our subject, 64.2 % of them preferred the recorded units and 84.6 % considered that they were properly addressed. Considering the students’ opinion, we planned the teaching strategy for the first semester of the academic year 2020-2021 based on the distance learning, except in the case of laboratory practices, in which the number of students were reduced by half. Going further, we stablished a comparison between mid-term marks obtained in both years (face-to-face in 2019-2020 vs. online teaching in 2020-2021), as this exam was conducted in person. No significant differences were found in the percentage of ‘pass’ and ‘fail’ students between the face-to-face (64.6 % and 15.6 %) and distance learning (59.1 % and 16.4 %), as well as in the case of the average mid-term mark, 6.1 and 6.2, respectively.

Conclusion. According to our results, the adaptation of Pharmaceutical Technology was a hard-working task due to the weight of the practical side, but the academic achievement showed no differences when we switched to the online modality. Moreover, students’ opinion is in accordance with this observation.

Keywords:

COVID-19, academic achievement, pharmacy students, distance learning.