Objectives. This study evaluated the potential of non-cognitive admissions indicators as predictors of academic success for distance educated, non-traditional doctor of pharmacy students. The objective of this study is to determine whether non-cognitive admission indicators are predictive of academic success. Methods. Preadmission candidate interview scores, essay scores, and total non-cognitive evaluation scores were compared via simple correlation with composite practice portfolio scores and grade point average (GPA) with (overall GPA) and without (didactic GPA) inclusion of portfolio scores. Results. Portfolio scores and GPA scores were significantly correlated with preadmission candidate interview scores, essay scores, and total non-cognitive evaluation scores. In addition, portfolio scores were significantly correlated with didactic GPA. Conclusions. All of the non-cognitive admissions parameters significantly correlated with the outcome measures; composite portfolio score, didactic GPA, and overall GPA. These correlations may assist schools of pharmacy in selecting applicants possessing skills required to succeed in a nontraditional, distance delivered PharmD program. The results of this study also pertain to other disciplines that use distance education.Keywords: admissions, student performance, academic success, non-traditional PharmD study by Zgarrick and MacKinnon in which they surveyed pharmacists to elicit motivations for wanting to pursue a non-traditional PharmD degree and to determine practice area preferences, approximately 32% of pharmacists indicated that they would or probably would enroll in a non-traditional PharmD program.1 The pharmacists surveyed indicated that improving their clinical skills and improving the quality of their work were reasons for wanting to enroll. Half of the pharmacists indicated that their current practice area would be their preferred area after they completed a PharmD degree. Such findings support the need for distance-based, non-traditional PharmD programs. While these findings indicate significant interest in non-traditional program enrollment, the number of institutions offering such programming in pharmacy has decreased since the publication of this article. The reason for this decrease was not investigated as it did not directly impact this study's purpose. INTRODUCTIONThe demand for non-traditional doctor of pharmacy programs was mainly stimulated by the 1989 decision of the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education (ACPE) to accredit only those colleges of pharmacy that offer the PharmD as their entry level degree and the subsequent vote by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) House of Delegates in 1992 to adopt the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) as the entry level degree. Non-traditional doctor of pharmacy programs are aimed at practicing pharmacists who earned pharmacy degrees from traditional Bachelor of Science programs.Distance-based, non-traditional PharmD programs provide many pharmacists with the convenience of being able to remain...

No abstract

The current emphasis, in education and training, on the use of instructional technology has fostered a shift in focus and renewed interest in integrating human learning and pedagogical research. This shift has involved the technological and pedagogical integration between learner cognition, instructional design, and instructional technology, with much of this integration focusing on the role of working memory and cognitive load in the development of comprehension and performance. Specifically, working memory, dual coding theory, and cognitive load are examined in order to provide the underpinnings of Mayer’s (2001) Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. The bulk of the chapter then addresses various principles based on Mayer’s work and provides well documented web-based examples.

No abstract

No abstract