Blended learning in pharmacology: Elevating cognitive skills, engagement and academic outcomes

Abstract ID 99151 Poster Board 024 Pharmacology education is crucial for health professionals, but it faces challenges with traditional methods such as lecture-based learning (LBL), which often fail to fully address complex concepts. Newer approaches, such as the flipped classroom (FC) and problem-based learning (PBL), show promise but yield mixed outcomes in pre-clinical settings, where students' limited knowledge can hinder understanding. The LBL approach in our pharmacology nursing course showed insufficient learning outcomes, with 37.8 ± 7.9% of students failing the final exam and average scores near the passing threshold, as tested across the latest five cohorts of the course (n=849 students). Analysis using Bloom's taxonomy revealed substantial deficits in higher-order cognitive skills. Consequently, the course was restructured into a blended learning structure incorporating question-based learning (QBL) to foster critical thinking across all cognitive levels. This approach combines asynchronous and synchronous learning to suit individual needs in a large class setting, thereby encouraging continuous student-centered learning. This redesign led to a significant decrease in the failure rate, marking an approximately 2.8-fold reduction and a notable increase in the average grade by 11.8 points (n = 426 students). Moreover, the pass rates in the advanced cognitive categories of "Evaluate" and "Create" improved by 19.0 and 24.2 percentage points, respectively. The blended course also showed enhanced student engagement of 74%, indicating its success in providing a dynamic and effective learning environment, significantly elevating both participation and academic outcomes across all cognitive levels. This study underscores the transformative impact of blended learning structures in pharmacology education. Integrating QBL with synchronous and asynchronous methods addresses the limitations of traditional LBL, enhancing student engagement and the mastery of complex pharmacological concepts. The significant improvements in academic performance and cognitive skill development highlight the effectiveness of this approach, advocating for its broader adoption in professional health education to better prepare students for the intricacies of clinical practice.