Exploring the Experiences of Pharmacy Students and Their Transition to Online Learning during COVID-19
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Method
3. Results
3.1. Life as an on-Campus Pharmacy Student
“I think it’s obvious that I thrive off having people around me. I think I learn a lot better. I like to bounce ideas off people around me and run through questions and scenarios and bounce ideas off people that typically you’re only going to be comfortable with if you have a bit of a relationship with them”—Participant 7.
“You’re in a class on campus and you have students everywhere who are easy to talk to. If you need a hand, people aren’t shy to ask questions, people aren’t shy to introduce themselves, especially when you’re meeting them for the first time. People want to make friends while they’re at uni”—Participant 1.
“Being a very small cohort, we did have a lot of contact with our tutors. They were very specific to pharmacy, which is really good, and we did have that really close relationship with a lot of them. We’d see them day in and day out when we were on campus. So, you sort of got to know them, they all knew us by name”—Participant 5.
“I don’t study from home. Home is home. University is at university, to the point I would go in at night-time to use the library and stuff. Even though I could use my desk at home, I wanted to be in that space that I associated with doing study”—Participant 3.
3.2. Preconceived Ideas of Online Learning
“It wasn’t anything I ever considered nor was interested in. I think I just felt it was for rural students. I think I felt it was for people perhaps living overseas at the time. That was my perception of online learning and also for people who work and had to be flexible for their school hours”—Participant 4.
“My idea of it was that you were given the task and you just do it when you get a chance almost. And there was very limited interaction with other people. It was just like you watch these videos or you do this quiz and that’s your learning”—Participant 5.
“I was quite devastated in the beginning. I don’t think anybody likes change. I’ll admit I don’t. I was very comfortable with my school and life balance. I lost a lot of sleep over it in the beginning, wondering how this could possibly work”—Participant 4.
“I did subtly in the back of my mind think it was not as beneficial or it was not as high standard as face-to-face learning… I’m so used to doing face-to-face learning throughout my first two years at university and through all my high school, my primary school. I just always thought that it was a superior method of teaching and just never really considered that online was ever really a viable learning option”—Participant 2.
3.3. Learning Differences as an Online Pharmacy Student
3.3.1. Communication Challenges
“When I needed to email, I really wanted an immediate response like I would on a face-to-face visit, and I didn’t get that. It could sometimes be two days before I got an answer and that of course held up my work. And that is the crux of my frustration with online study”—Participant 4.
“We’d have perhaps 10 min of question time and sometimes your questions didn’t come till after the lecture. So yeah, it was difficult. You couldn’t ask the teacher the following day at school because you weren’t there”—Participant 3.
“Online you’re talking to someone through for a screen and it’s not the same [as being in-person]. You don’t really know what their body language is, you can’t really like interpret what they’re thinking. If you’re looking at someone through a screen, whereas when you’re in person with someone you can kind of feel the energy, just trying to understand better how they’re feeling”—Participant 1.
3.3.2. Lack of Motivation
“So that was year three, 2020, it’s been my best year so far. So, in terms of results and things like that, I feel like I was able to adjust well enough and be able to learn the content and do well on the exams and come out with good marks”—Participant 3.
“Sometimes there’s too much freedom. I like the rigidity of you be here at this time and we’re going to do this content. And when I was sort of left off in the, here it is uploaded, watch it in your time, I was quite relaxed about it and often skipped recorded lectures”—Participant 3.
“It’s just that mindset that you’re sitting down and you’re looking at a computer screen for however many hours and it’s just like, you’re mentally not there. Whereas when you’re sitting down and you’re face-to-face with students all around, you know, you feel more motivated”—Participant 1.
3.3.3. Intimidation of Online Environments
“I do feel like [student contribution] dropped once we went online. There was a lot more interaction when we were there on campus… people were very much more reserved when they were online. I feel a lot of the teachers were met with more silence than what they were used to”—Participant 5.
“I didn’t care if anyone thought I was dumb, it’s my education, it’s my degree. I’m going to make this work for me. I think that just comes with a bit of maturity and time”—Participant 3.
3.3.4. Learning Flexibility
“One of my friends, she’s a single mum with a five-year-old and she actually doesn’t even come to class. She’s like, I get way more of it just popping in my headphones and watching the recordings. So that just suits her, and she’s made that work for her”—Participant 3.
“I think it’s really good to be able to do these things in your own time, if you’re somebody that has a lot of other responsibilities as well… When I was working, I was able to do study after work and things like that, so I found that really helpful”—Participant 5.
3.4. The Future of Online Pharmacy Programs
“You lose that hands on experience and especially for the asthma puffers and the diabetes training, you know, we sort of missed out on that… You get that deeper understanding from having physically touched it and used it”—Participant 3.
“I hope [online pharmacy courses] wouldn’t continue. I feel like you’re going to miss out so much, especially learning to talk to people face-to-face. Yeah, we have telehealth, but we’re not there with pharmacy yet… Lots of people I feel like will very much struggle”—Participant 6.
“I fought against it in the beginning, but now I am fine and now I would happily engage in online learning again. It wouldn’t be my first preference. I will always prefer to do on-campus learning, but if that’s not available to me, I wouldn’t be too shy to try online learning again”—Participant 4.
“After sort of getting used to it, I actually did find it was very, it wasn’t as difficult as what I had sort of initially thought… As long as you’re keeping on top of things, you’re planning ahead really well. I think it’s, that’d be something that I’d be willing to try”—Participant 5.
4. Discussion
4.1. Implications for Practice and Future Research
4.2. Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A. Semi-Structured Interview Guide
- (1)
- Tell me about your learning experience as an on-campus student.Why did you choose on-campus learning in the first place?
- (2)
- What were your perceptions of online learning prior to COVID-19?What is your definition of online learning?What do you think influenced these perceptions of online learning?Have you ever considered taking an online course before? Why?
- (3)
- Tell me about your online learning experience during COVID-19.How did you feel when you found out you would be doing online study?What were the main barriers you identified to online learning?What were the benefits of online learning?
- (4)
- How did your views of online study change as the year progressed?What do you think influenced this view about online learning?
- (5)
- How has your approach to learning or study techniques changed?
- (6)
- Do you think pharmacy programs can progress as an online alternative? Why?What would you say are the main characteristics of someone who would do well in an online learning environment?
- (7)
- Would you consider taking online units in future study? Why?
- (8)
- What advice would you give to a pharmacy student who is taking an online course for the first time?
- (9)
- What suggestions would you give to pharmacy staff members teaching online courses?How do you think your university handled the change from on-campus learning to online learning?
- (10)
- Is there any other additional information you would like to discuss regarding your experience of online learning?
- (11)
- Is there anything you would like to add any of the previous questions we have explored today?
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Inclusion Criteria |
---|
Older than 18 years old Previously an on-campus student Able to interview in English Agree to participate in recorded interview Undertaken ≥1 online university unit Enrolled in Pharmacy Board of Australia-approved pharmacy program |
Participant | Age | Gender | Year of Study in 2020 | University (State) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 21 | Female | Second | A (Vic) |
2 | 22 | Male | Third | A (Vic) |
3 | 31 | Male | Third | B (NSW) |
4 | 33 | Female | Third | C (NSW) |
5 | 23 | Female | Fourth | A (Vic) |
6 | 22 | Female | Third | D (NSW) |
7 | 25 | Male | Second | E (Vic) |
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Morling, A.C.; Wang, S.-Y.; Spark, M.J. Exploring the Experiences of Pharmacy Students and Their Transition to Online Learning during COVID-19. Pharmacy 2022, 10, 110. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy10050110
Morling AC, Wang S-Y, Spark MJ. Exploring the Experiences of Pharmacy Students and Their Transition to Online Learning during COVID-19. Pharmacy. 2022; 10(5):110. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy10050110
Chicago/Turabian StyleMorling, Aleisha C, Shou-Yu Wang, and M. Joy Spark. 2022. "Exploring the Experiences of Pharmacy Students and Their Transition to Online Learning during COVID-19" Pharmacy 10, no. 5: 110. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy10050110