5.6. Simulations of Pharmacological Experiments on the Guinea Pig Ileum 6.1 Design and Structure

This package was developed at the University of Bath and first released in July 1993. This evaluation was conducted on version 2 of the package, subsequently PCCAL has released version 3. It is a very popular package amongst the Schools of Pharmacy and in the survey of UK Schools of Pharmacy conducted in July 1995, Guinea Pig Ileum was shown to be one of the packages most commonly recommended or time-tabled as part of a course. It is a large package with 10 activities or modules and represents approximately 10 hours of study. It is made up of three main areas of work- the Experimental Set-up, Agonists and Antagonists. Although the package could be studied in its entirety, due to its size, it is usually split into two or more teaching episodes. Implementation of the package at different institutions varies according to the structure of each degree course, resources, time-tabling constraints and academic views on the role of this package in the teaching of Pharmacology to Pharmacy students. For this study, all groups worked on the sections of the package relating to the Experimental Set-up and Agonists Drugs. The overall aims and objectives for the package are:

AIM To introduce students to the action of drugs on the isolated guinea pig ileum tissue OBJECTIVES The student should be able to: 1. Design an experiment to find out the pharmacological properties of an unknown drug on the guinea pig ileum 2. Demonstrate an understanding of experimental techniques 3. Demonstrate knowledge of the structure and pharmacology and innervation of the guinea pig ileum 4. Demonstrate knowledge of receptor theory 5. Construct and interpret dose response curves and state whether a drug is an agonist or antagonist 6 .State what PA2 is and how to find it 7. use agonist/antagonist combinations to find out about receptors and sites of action

Each activity within the package consists of a mix of tutorial information, interactive questions with hints and detailed feedback and self test sections. Most sections contain a summary at the end. In addition, some activities, such as Constructing Dose Response Curves and Agonists on the Guinea Pig Ileum are simulations of the live experiment and the learner is required to enter doses and concentrations as they would in the practical laboratory. The system also has a built-in margin of error to simulate the variance in results always present when conducting such experiments. Structure of the package Experimental Set-Up Agonists - Theory Agonists - Constructing Dose-Response Curves Agonists - Comparing Dose-Response Curves Agonists on the Guinea Pig Ileum Antagonists - Theory Antagonists - Constructing Dose-Response Curves Antagonists - Comparing Dose-Response Curves Agonist/Antagonists on the Guinea Pig Ileum Receptors