5.6. Simulations of Pharmacological Experiments on the Guinea Pig Ileum 6.2 Study Groups The evaluation study was conducted at Schools of Pharmacy at four universities, all of which were members of the UK PCCAL Consortium: University of Wales Cardiff, Bath, Liverpool John Moores and Brighton. All students involved in this study were first year undergraduates. In every case, the whole year group was studied in order to keep the evaluation as authentic as possible and to avoid all the pitfalls associated with volunteers, such as changing motivation, self selection etc. outlined previously in section 3.4 on Classroom Studies. The total sample size of 291 and its breakdown by university is shown in table 8 below. The sample size for Brighton represents the total number of valid cases. More information on the reasons for the low numbers on this site will be detailed in section 6.3.4. The case studies appear in the order in which they were undertaken.

TABLE 8: STUDY GROUPS FOR THE ISOLATED GUINEA PIG ILEUM University Number of valid cases Teaching Method Year of Undergraduate Course Cardiff 96 Timetabled class and practical 1st year Bath 71 Structured exercise in a timetabled class 1st year Liverpool 96 Practical and CAL sessions working in groups 1st year Brighton 28 Extended study on a casual basis 1st year

Table 8 also sets out the teaching method used at each of the institutions involved. All the sites were using the package as a planned part of their current course and therefore the evaluation was designed to reflect actual practice and to avoid coercing the teaching and learning situation into "an evaluation format". All groups were working on the same parts of the package, namely the Experimental Set-up and the four sections dealing with Agonists. Pre and post test assessment questions were based only upon these sections, even though in some cases students may have studied additional areas of the package. Tests consisted of 10 multiple choice questions on content which were reviewed, adjusted and validated by all participating institutions. Although all the students studied the same area of work, the ways in which the materials were presented, the timing and time allocation available varied greatly from institution to institution. In the following section, we describe the teaching methods and the learning situations for each case study in more detail, followed by the central results on student confidence, learning outcomes and learning strategies.