Learning is an active process, and, as such, interactive lectures are considered as the educational best practice. This study investigated the efficacy of interactive lecturing in a module of eight respiratory physiology lectures in a second-year Physiology course with two distinct subcohorts: students with strong science backgrounds and those without. The comparison of student performance in the summative examinations of respiratory physiology allowed us to evaluate the efficacy of interactive lecturing for each subcohort. Formal teaching evaluations were used to gauge the students' perception of interactive lectures. To further validate our findings, we repeated the study in the following year. The introduction of interactive lecturing significantly improved learning outcomes, with this improvement being maintained for the period of this study. Furthermore, students with limited prior knowledge, who had typically performed very poorly in this module, achieved a similar learning outcome to those students with a good science background. From these summative results and the students' perceptions, we concluded that students that are alert, motivated and interested in the subject, and engaged in learning activities and that are being encouraged to think and receive constant feedback on their progress will become confident in their learning abilities and have improved learning outcomes.

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Objectives. To expand voluntary active-learning opportunities for bachelor of pharmacy students enrolled in a third-year human physiology and pharmacology course and determine whether the additional course components improved learning outcomes. Design. Additional voluntary active-learning opportunities including a large-class tutorial, additional formative assessment, and an online discussion were added to the Respiratory Physiology Module of the course. Examination scores were compared with those from previous years. A questionnaire was administered to assess students' perception of the active-learning components. Assessment. Mean examination scores increased from 69.3% 6 24.4% in 2003 to 88.9% 6 13.4% in 2004 and 86.9% 6 17.6% in 2005, after the addition of the active-learning components. Students' overall perception of the value of the active-learning activities was positive. Summary. The addition of voluntary active-learning course components to a required pharmacy course resulted in improved student examination scores, and decreased failure rate, and were accomplished at low cost and with little additional staff time.

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