The US Health Care System PHA 316: An introduction to the health care participants and policy decisions facing pharmacists

A teaching innovation involving both campus-based and Internet-based asynchronous students is presented. Active learning techniques designed to engage first professional year students and facilitate team-based learning in an introductory Health Care Systems course were implemented. Scripted online database search algorithms were developed and implemented to assist students in each degree pathway as they learned to apply search strategies to problem identification and solving. Results of searches prompted active discussions both online and in the classroom. Statistical analysis of student performance as measured by examination scores revealed no significant differences between degree pathways.