Department of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
BMC Med Educ. 2013 Sep 8;13:120. doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-13-120.
Microblog is a Web 2.0 technology that provides an online social networking platform for communicating and sharing information among web users. Pharmacy educators have previously used microblog to promote active engagement of students. However, there is very little research to demonstrate how to use microblogging effectively to enhance pedagogy in a blended or face-to-face classroom environment. We used the most popular microblog website in China to create a "space" within the classroom to evaluate an interactive microblogging forum for the integration of pharmacotherapy case studies. This study is aimed to determine students' attitudes toward microblog-based case studies (MBC) in a pharmacotherapy class.
We created a group on Sina Weibo, the most popular microblog website in China, to explore the possibilities of using microblog-based case discussions in pharmacy education to promote and motivate student learning. The class teaching activities began in November 2011; individual group assignments to a single case study were administered to 21 groups with a total of 126 participating pharmacy students. Each group was required to share a discussion care plan on the microblogging platform. Individual students were expected to participate in an online discussion related to at least two other group cases by posting their comments on the microblog platform. All postings were tracked and analyzed, and then a post MBC survey was administered anonymously to determine students' opinions towards MBC.
A total of 126 students posted 592 messages and 112 students (89%) completed the survey. More than 80% of students agreed that MBC improved communication; nearly 70% agreed that MBC increased the amount of interaction, and over 50% found value in reading other students' messages. However, 25% students believed the collaborative learning was not effective and 22% indicated the quality of interaction was low.
MBC appears to be well-accepted learning method to students in this study. Educators who wish to use MBC for pharmacy courses should balance the potential advantages, such as improving communication and the amount of interaction, with potential disadvantages, such as inefficient collaborative learning and the low quality of interaction.
微博是一种 Web 2.0 技术，为网络用户之间的交流和信息共享提供了一个在线社交网络平台。药剂学教育者之前曾使用微博来促进学生的积极参与。然而，几乎没有研究表明如何有效地利用微博来增强混合或面对面课堂环境中的教学。我们使用中国最受欢迎的微博网站在课堂内创建了一个“空间”，以评估一个用于整合药物治疗案例研究的互动微博论坛。本研究旨在确定学生对药物治疗课程中基于微博的案例研究（MBC）的态度。
我们在中国最受欢迎的微博网站新浪上创建了一个群组，以探索在药学教育中使用基于微博的案例讨论来促进和激发学生学习的可能性。课堂教学活动于 2011 年 11 月开始；向 21 个小组（共 126 名参与药学学生）分配了单个案例的小组作业。要求每个小组在微博平台上分享一个讨论护理计划。预计个别学生通过在微博平台上发布评论，参与与至少两个其他小组案例相关的在线讨论。所有帖子都进行了跟踪和分析，然后匿名进行了一项 MBC 调查，以确定学生对 MBC 的看法。
共有 126 名学生发布了 592 条消息，有 112 名学生（89%）完成了调查。超过 80%的学生认为 MBC 提高了沟通能力；近 70%的学生认为 MBC 增加了互动量，超过 50%的学生认为阅读其他学生的信息有价值。然而，25%的学生认为协作学习效率不高，22%的学生认为互动质量低。
MBC 似乎是本研究中学生普遍接受的学习方法。希望将 MBC 用于药学课程的教育者应该平衡潜在的优势，例如提高沟通和互动量，与潜在的劣势，例如协作学习效率不高和互动质量低。
