Pharmacy Professors Embrace TikTok to Engage Students, Overcome Challenges

Alexis E Horace, PharmD, BCACP, professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Louisiana at Monroe College of Pharmacy, and Jameshia A Below, PharmD, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, describe their experience incorporating a TikTok activity into their curriculum, despite initial uncertainty about how students would perceive it. They had to step out of their comfort zones to learn the social media platform and then introduce it to the students. The professors emphasize the importance of being willing to try new things and not worrying about failure as they troubleshooted issues that arose. The majority of students enjoyed the activity, which allowed them to think creatively and take a break from traditional didactic learning. Overall, the professors encourage other faculty to take risks with social media for educational purposes, as they believe it can be a powerful tool for reaching and engaging students.

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Q: Were there any driving factors that made this a success?

Jameshia A Below: I think when we're thinking about the driving factors, it was really just 2 faculty members that was willing to take a risk. So when we were discussing it over the summer before the class, we were kind of not sure how the students would perceive a Tiktok activity, and we really wasn't sure, but we just have to step out of our comfort zone, and so we had to learn about the social media platform, because before this, neither of us was really that familiar with TikTok beyond just scrolling, so we have to kind of just learn the platform and then be confident enough to introduce that to the students. So I feel like the biggest thing is just being willing to try and not really worry about failing, and then as the obstacles will come up, we just troubleshoot those issues, and then just keep on going and working with the students, and then really just being motivating and trying to encourage the students to be free within limits, and just make sure that they were going to be creative and try to think outside the box, and just that was what made the activity really fun.

Q: Where students generally receptive to the instruction, and how did they enjoy this assignment?

Alexis E Horace: I'm going to say that they enjoyed it. I think the majority of the class enjoyed being able to, like I said, think outside of the box and learn in a different way, and part of our pharmacy curriculum is a lot of didactic education where they're sitting in a chair, they're being lectured to talk to. There's lots of team-based learning, but this really requires students to move around and to pretend with objects and to, like I said before, dream a little bit and dream with each other, and I think through the process of creating the video, they were able to learn. So it's not just the actual video that the students were learning from. It's the creation of the video that created an atmosphere for learning, and so we had some really great feedback. Some of our feedback said that it kept us engaged because it was enjoyable. Somebody else said I enjoyed the free format of the lab. It was a good break from typical class structure, and then my most favorite was a student that said we had so much fun I didn't even realize I was learning, and so for me as an instructor that just really hit home that we are able to bridge this gap and reach students in a way that they want to learn and that we can make it fun, and so, I believe the feedback really encourages us to continue to provide this activity, but then to also troubleshoot some of our challenges, because we did get some feedback, and keep going again for the next year.

Q: Were there any obstacles in the instruction, and what would you do differently to mitigate these challenges?

Jameshia A Below: When we first started. I think our biggest obstacle is technology, for sure, and so what I'm referring to with the technology is WiFi connections, and so for us, we did make sure that we told the students to only use 1 device for the WIFi so that they didn't have multiple devices taking up the bandwidth. And then we also how Dr Horace said, with the using the actual TikTok platform to download and make the videos because they were smaller size and because we had to also make sure we allowed it allowed enough time for the videos to be uploaded so that we can stream them through the class. So that was our biggest thing, is just making sure we had a enough time, and our time was used wisely, and that we were accounting for technology and let the students know how to actually upload and download everything. I think the other challenges that we had is that we just have to make sure that the instructions were very clear from start to finish.

Alexis E Horace: I also think that we have to think about some generational barriers as well because there are student pharmacists of all ages and generations, and so there are some that were more equipped to use TikTok than others, and we maybe had a group or 2 where, not anyone in their group knew how to use TikTok, so they're trying to learn how to use it on the fly during class, and that caused a level of stress. So I think really stressing and ensuring that at least someone in your group should navigate this app before class starts will be imperative.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add about this experience?

Alexis E Horace: I just encourage future faculty and current faculty to take risk. Social media is here to stay. It's not going anywhere. It's how people are learning. They're getting the news from social media. They're learning about products, health products, and as long as we can utilize it for a force of good by having our students engage in it in a professionally appropriate way, I think we can definitely use it as a way to for education, to reach younger students, or to reach our students, any student, not just the young.

Jameshia A Below: Yes, and I was just going to add that for me, my joy with teaching comes from being able to really interact with the students make learning fun while I'm still providing education. So by being able to do these type of engaging activities. It really does help us, especially if it's with a subject that may not be as interesting to students, we find a ways to make it more interesting for them to learn.