A study to investigate the impact of a blended learning teaching approach to teach pharmacy law

Objective To describe the implementation and assess the effect of a blended learning approach to teach pharmacy law. Methods Twenty didactic pharmacy law lectures were redeveloped to 9 h of flipped classroom sessions. Presession online videos delivered factual content created in-house. In-class activities explored the application and nuances of law through simulated cases. Stage 2 Pharmacy undergraduate students (n = 69) were administered the Community of Inquiry Survey, measuring the social, teaching and cognitive presence of online learning experiences across 34 items on a Likert scale 1-5 (1 = 'strongly agree', to 5 = 'strongly disagree'). Four focus groups were undertaken and analysed thematically to explore student perceptions. Performance at the final summative law examination was recorded and compared to that of two previous cohorts given traditional, didactic teaching. Key findings Fifty-three students (76.8% response) completed the survey. The mean ranking was 3.6 +/- 0.7, 3.6 +/- 0.6 and 3.3 +/- 0.7 for teaching, social and cognitive presence, and most positively rated statements related to material design and organization. All students passed the summative law examination performing not significantly different to the previous cohorts. Focus group discussions demonstrated that students liked the online and interactive case-study materials, but wanted more direction and preferred smaller group sessions. Students had mixed feelings about needing an online social component. Conclusions Blended learning transformed the pharmacy law teaching from didactic to an interactive learning experience. The student feedback was generally mixed, but offered many recommendations to optimize the design and format of the course. Examination performance appeared to be unaffected by the change in teaching style.