Objectives. To implement an audience response system in a dual-campus classroom that aggregated data during graded (attendance and quizzes) and non-graded classroom activities (formative quizzes, case discussions, examination reviews, and team activities) and explore its strengths, weaknesses, and impact on active learning. Design. After extensive research, an appropriate audience response system was selected and implemented in a dual-classroom setting for a third-year required PharmD course. Students were assigned a clicker and training and policies regarding clicker use were reviewed. Activities involving clicker use were carefully planned to simultaneously engage students in both classrooms in real time. Focus groups were conducted with students to gather outcomes data. Assessment. Students and faculty members felt that the immediate feedback the automated response system (ARS) provided was most beneficial during non-graded activities. Student anxiety increased with use of ARS during graded activities due to fears regarding technology failure, user error, and academic integrity. Summary. ARS is a viable tool for increasing active learning in a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program, especially when used for non-graded class activities. Faculty members should proceed cautiously with using ARS for graded classroom activities and develop detailed and documented policies for ARS use.

Many prevention studies are now designed with complementary interventions in different settings. Evaluations of these interventions require assessing the child's behavior in each of these settings. Conducting these studies, therefore, may involve recruiting school districts, principals, classroom teachers, peers, parents, siblings, and in later years, employers and intimate partners. These participants may be considered natural raters or satellite subjects, depending on their degree of involvement. Issues of recruitment and retention thus are magnified in multimethod, multiagent studies. To illustrate these issues, findings are presented for three studies conducted with risk populations in the past decade at the Oregon Social Learning Center: a passive longitudinal study, a selected prevention study, and an indicated prevention study. Findings indicate that achieving high recruitment and retention rates for at-risk and high-risk subjects in multisetting studies is possible, and that a developmental approach should be taken to recruiting risk populations.

Significant variation and gaps exist in adolescent medicine ambulatory care training in pediatric residency programs throughout the United States. For addressing the shortcomings in many programs, the quality of the block rotation should be improved and efforts should be made to teach adolescent medicine in continuity, general pediatric, and specialty clinics. In addition, renewed attention should be given to articulating the core competencies needed to care for adolescents.

Although research regarding self-assessment as a curriculum component has been undertaken previously, no data have been reported regarding the perceptions of graduates who were taught self-assessment as a formalized component of accredited dental hygiene programs. Aided by alumni insight and the belief that the dental hygiene curriculum has the potential for improvement, the purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate dental hygienists' perceptions regarding self-assessment as a curriculum component and its impact on their clinical dental hygiene education. This investigation drew a sample of subjects from forty-eight graduates of a bachelor's degree dental hygiene program located within a college of dentistry. Twelve graduates were selected to participate in the study. An audiotaped, semi-structured interview with predetermined questions served as a focus for the interview, yet amplification and probing allowed the participants to further articulate their feelings and thoughts. Findings indicated that participants believed self-assessment to be a worthwhile and positive component of the dental hygiene curriculum. All participants emphatically recounted with dramatic examples that training in self-assessment positively influenced their clinical dental hygiene education, permanently impacted their thinking process, and is being used in their practices.

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