The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 2025/03, 392(3S):161250. doi: 10.1016/j.jpet.2024.102489, type of study: ,mms,

Full text    (https://jpet.aspetjournals.org/article/S0022-3565(24)44138-4/abstract)

Keywords:

medical students [694]
mixed method study [114]
osteopathic medicine [2109]
pharmacology [6]
USA [1752]

Abstract:

At the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine (KYCOM), students are taught pharmacology year-long in the 2nd year. These Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) students in Pharmacology were assigned board-style questions for board-prep practice available from different Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) question resources. Our primary goal was to see if this activity would benefit the students and if assigning marks to this would help motivate more students to attempt and complete these practice questions during the year. During the Fall semester, no marks were given for completing these COTS-based board-style questions (from UWorld© and TrueLearn©). In comparison, during the Spring semester, Bonus Marks were given to anyone completing these questions. Data was gathered from these question banks looking for completion data. Additionally, a survey with a Likert scale was also sent out at the end of the year to assess the overall response of students to this additional learning activity. Results showed that for both UWorld© (78% vs. 47%) and TrueLearn© Q-banks (79% vs. 37%), there were significantly more students who completed the practice questions during the Spring semester (compared to Fall semester) when marks were assigned to this activity. There was also an increase in the average class score (UWorld© 66% vs. 63%; TrueLearn© 71% vs. 53.6%) during the Spring semester. For the survey administered to the class, there was a response rate of 30.2% (achieved power 0.814). For all the questions in the survey (questions related to these practice questions providing help, motivation, Board-prep, confidence, overall learning, etc.), there was a statistically significant (p<0.0001, Goodness of Fit Chi-square) positive response ('strongly agree' and 'agree' responses) on all responses. The data shows the benefit of assigning these COTS resources to medical pharmacology students. It also shows that assigning marks motivated more students to complete these practice questions.