Evaluating pharmacy student use of ExamSoft strength and opportunity reports

Introduction: This paper assesses use of ExamSoft strength and opportunity (S&O) reports amongst doctor of pharmacy students, student perceptions of the reports, and the effect of instructing students on how best to use the reports.

Methods: Second-year pharmacy students enrolled in the medicinal chemistry and pharmacology course sequence completed a baseline survey regarding use of S&O reports in the fall semester. Educational interventions describing best practices on how to use the S&O report were provided to students. A follow-up survey was conducted in the winter semester.

Results: Eighty-four percent (69/82) of students returned a valid baseline survey, and 89% (71/80) returned a valid follow-up survey. At baseline, 55% (38/69) always/sometimes downloaded the report; this increased to 68% (48/71) after educational interventions (P = .06). Students who downloaded the report were asked to provide their perceived usefulness of the S&O report. At baseline, 76% (29/38) of students downloading the report rated it as either somewhat/very useful; this increased to 94% (45/48) following educational interventions (P = .002). Fewer students reported not being able to interpret the report post-intervention vs. baseline, although the decrease was not significant (9% vs. 21%, respectively; P = .07).

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that providing students with a downloadable S&O report after exams is beneficial. There was a trend towards increased student use and a significant increase in perceived usefulness of the report following brief educational interventions. Our pilot data suggest that educational interventions on use of S&O reports should be included in student ExamSoft training.