Hi Everyone!
This week I wanted to talk module based curriculum! Why? Well, it’s slightly different than the traditional course work that most of us (if not all) experienced in undergrad, and it is how the PharmD program is taught at Ohio State!
When I say the traditional curriculum, I am referring to taking multiple classes and subjects at once, for the entirety of a semester. For example, you may take a medicinal chemistry class, a pharmaceutical calculations class, a pathophysiology class, a lab and have your introductory pharmacy practice experience (IPPE) all at the same time (courses varying by semester and year). And often, the subject matters in each class will vary widely from each other. This may mean multiple exams in multiples classes in a week, and a lot of balancing in regards to different course material and studying time. This is widely done, and was used by Ohio State for many years, as well as many other Colleges of Pharmacy.
However, in 2016 (for the class of 2020—that’s me!), the College began teaching a module based curriculum—something that I feel has been beneficial to my learning and pharmacy practice experience, despite having previously done my undergraduate studies on the traditional style.
In module based learning, you focus on one class at a time, and the lab and IPPE compliment what you are learning in class. For example, as a P1, one of the major themes of the year was community based pharmacy. This meant that at the beginning of the year in class we learned about patient counseling, pharmacy law and more, in lab we learned how to take prescriptions over the phone, check prescriptions that would be filled in a community pharmacy, and that our IPPEs were focused on the community setting. P2 and P3 years are where you learn about the majority of your therapeutics. In module based, you walk through one disease state at a time. At the beginning of this year (I am a P2), we started with Cardiology, and learned the medicinal chemistry, therapeutics, pharmacology, and more regarding disease states involving the heart. Having such an all-encompassing view of the disease state made all of the content relevant and easier to tie together and understand.
Hopefully this gives you a little more insight into what exactly module based learning is and how beneficial it can be to your learning and understanding of content! I have personally found it to be incredibly helpful and find that it relieves a lot of stress as you are only studying for one or two classes at a time and can truly devote your understanding to it, rather than trying to juggle multiple different classes at once and getting less out of each.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have further questions about the curriculum or anything related to the College of Pharmacy!
Cassie