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This report describes the background and history of the Pharmacy
Consortium for Computer Aided Learning (PCCAL) before introducing
the development and implementation of this large scale, multi-site
evaluation study involving a total of 854 cases . This is followed
by a discussion of the nature of evaluation for consortia. An overview
of the design of the study, and the range of methods used is included
, as are the limitations and constraints which have contributed to the approach taken. Each of the three CAL packages which have been evaluated are then examined. The packages under evaluation cover a range of pharmacy disciplines - Organic Chemistry, Simulations of Experiments on Animal Tissues and Problems Solving for Community Pharmacists. The first package involved 376 students at four institutions, where the teaching methods were very similar. However, in general, the PCCAL packages are used in a variety of ways by individual schools of pharmacy so the evaluation was designed to accommodate this by treating each evaluation site as a separate case study. This variation in teaching methods and implementation is detailed in the discussion
of the remaining two packages. The report outlines the results for
each case study and examines the central issues of student confidence
and preparedness, learning outcomes and learning strategies. In most
cases, the results show that students increased their learning and
confidence levels although these results are not homogenous. The
findings also highlight key areas of concern in implementing CAL
packages and the effects that different implementation methods have
upon the effectiveness of the packages. The report ends with overall
conclusions, lessons learned and areas for further analysis and
investigation.
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