Before the first class: Engaging students early in curriculum design to support program reform

Curriculum reform is often something done to students, not with them—particularly before implementation. In the context of a transition to a 3-year PharmD curriculum underpinned by adaptive expertise, we developed a low-resource model to meaningfully engage students during early-stage curriculum design. Using orientation materials and facilitated focus groups, we captured student insights on draft curricular blocks before launch, yielding actionable improvements and a foundation for program evaluation. This approach is scalable, adaptable, and bridges a longstanding gap between design and lived experience—inviting students into upstream decision-making with minimal cost or infrastructure.