A problem based learning, case study approach to pharmaceutics: Faculty and student perspectives

The two-semester PharmD-level I Pharmaceutics course at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy has been taught using a student-centered, problem-based learning (PBL) approach for the last five years. The most important element of the course is the assignment of two case studies in each semester, and the performance of these case studies by groups of students. The intention of the course is to emphasize group working, cooperation and collective achievement as being equally important to individual effort and grades. The course involves the participation in lectures and discussion groups of faculty, students and teaching assistants, and of student 'mentors' - students who took the course in the previous year. Over a five-year period instructors have designed and then refined the approach within the constraints created by a class size of about 170 students. Described are experiences to date in the teaching and administration of the course, from a faculty perspective. Provided are a number of suggestions regarding the most effective structure of the course, the appropriate methods of evaluation, the potential pitfalls, and the demands of such a course on both students and faculty. To help the reader understand further the impact of the PBL approach on students, several students, who have both taken the course, and then acted as mentors, provide an independent, student perspective on the teaching approach. Their perspective is presented in the final part of the manuscript.