Pharmacy Students Embrace Collaborative, Interactive Learning Strategies

Alessia Reeves, Dylan LeBoeuf, and Taylor Hurst, all PharmD candidates from the University of Louisiana Monroe, discussed their collaborative approach to a project that involved creating a TikTok video. They emphasize the importance of hands-on, interactive learning strategies over traditional lecture-based formats, noting that this better suits the needs of their generation, especially in the post-COVID era. The team relied on each member's strengths, with some focused on idea generation and others on video editing, to develop an innovative final product. The collaborative nature of the project and the ability to learn from each other's perspectives emerged as key takeaways.

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Q: What were some of the strategies used to complete the assignment?

Alessia Reeves: Kind of, as I said, it is difficult when you're trying to focus on reading just lots of notes on the slide. So really, the strategy was just pulling from, we wanted a hands on experience.

Dylan LeBoeuf: Some of the strategies we use were just kind of like brainstorming. I don't really, like, the technical definition of it, but just kind of throwing out a bunch of ideas on a wall and seeing what'll stick. So we didn't have a PowerPoint slide or anything to really go off of. We didn't have kind of any background. It was what we could build and what we could think of and and it was really just collaborating with each other and everyone else in the group to come up with the best plan for our project, and then utilizing our group members strengths. So like Alessia, who was in the group, is really good at editing and making the Tiktok into an actual infomercial, so we relied heavily on that aspect, and then Taylor and I are super good at coming up with like ideas on the fly, so we relied heavily on those. So it really utilized everybody's strengths, and then just throw in all the ideas out there and seeing what sticks.

Taylor Hurst: I just think interactive learning is what we wanted to highlight. A lot of people may not realize that this could really help the information stick for them. Or if someone you know just kind of wants to get their nerves out before they go on rotations. Like right now, we're doing our clinical rotations in hospitals, and sometimes we are put in situations where we're independent, and we got to really learn how to do things. I think it would be great for anybody to learn how to use things like social media in general, or these interactive glasses just to explore that side of their brain so they can understand how to learn that way.

Q: What did you learn from this assignment, and what were some of the elements you enjoyed?

Alessia Reeves: This assignment, I learned that even though pharmacy has come a long way and has involved evolved a lot, there's still a lot more we can do and a lot we can improve on there's always room for improvement. I really enjoyed collaborating with my classmates, bouncing ideas off of each other and being creative, especially the social media aspect. It gave us a creative outlet, and I also really enjoyed seeing what my other classmates came up with as they were posting as well.

Dylan LeBoeuf: Pharmacy changes a lot, especially the way that people learn and I think that in the 21st century now it's kind of, it's a different experience to learn. It's not how it used to be, you could go to the classroom and you could sit down and you can get lectured from 9 am to 5 pm and then you're expected to go home and study, and with our generation, especially post-COVID, we've seen that that's not really realistic, and to keep a mental health and everything else kind of in check while you're in a professional program. And so from this assignment, I've learned that it's definitely doable to have those non-traditional learning projects thrown into a lower stake class. What I would like to see from this is kind of put into some of those higher stake classes, like our therapeutic classes, on having that non-traditional learning, I guess, project or assignment, and then the elements that I enjoyed most is really just the collaboration of a group, seeing, relying on other people's strengths, and recognizing our own weaknesses within working on, and collaborating on a project like this. That's probably one of the best elements because that's like real world scenario, and that's not something that you can learn off of a screen. You can't learn that from a lecture. Learning your own strengths and weaknesses in group dynamics is something that you learn on collaborating on a project like this. So I think that would be, like the best element that, or biggest takeaway, I guess.

Taylor Hurst: So I enjoyed the collaboration part of things. Just getting together as a group was a lot of fun, and putting our minds together to see what ideas we could come up with. Because, like, obviously, exam AR glasses was not something that popped up super quick on our minds. So lots of brainstorming happened, and it was just really cool to hear everybody's thoughts and perspectives on different topics that we could touch on in pharmacy and what we could improve. So that was my favorite part.