Adam M Persky

• Ph.D.
• Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Background Since the release of ChatGPT, numerous positive applications for this artificial intelligence (AI) tool in higher education have emerged. Faculty can reduce workload by implementing the use of AI. While course evaluations are a common tool used across higher education, the process of identifying useful information from multiple open-ende...

Introduction: Leadership development is important both from a curricular standpoint and for continued advancement of the profession. Advice from current leaders in the profession may serve as a powerful motivator to students desiring to be leaders. The purpose of this qualitative study was to provide advice from experienced pharmacy leaders. Method...

The objective of this study was to evaluate microlearning as a preceptor development method compared to a traditional method of learning. Twenty-five preceptor participants volunteered to engage in a learning intervention about two preceptor development topics. Participants were randomized 1:1 to either a thirty-minute traditional learning experien...

Purpose/objectives: Multimedia presentations and online platforms are used in dental education. Though studies indicate the benefits of video-based lectures (VBLs), data regarding user reception and optimal video features in dental education are limited, particularly on Web 2.0 platforms like YouTube. Given increasing technology integration and re...

Background A growing body of literature describes teaching practices that are positively associated with student achievement. Observing, characterizing, and providing feedback on these teaching practices is a necessary, yet significant challenge to improving teaching quality. This study describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of an ins...

Objective. To describe and evaluate how a design thinking approach aided the creation of the 2021 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Teacher's SeminarMethods. The design thinking framework (ie, inspiration, ideation, and implementation) was used to structure the seminar development process from July 2020 to July 2021. Nine committe...

Objective. To determine the extent to which students can recreate a recently completed examination from memory.Methods. After two mid-term examinations, students were asked, as a class, to recreate recently completed examinations. Students were given 48 hours to recreate the examination, including details about the questions and answer choices. The...

Objective. The objectives of the review are to (1) describe the utility of approaches used for the assessment of course interventions in pharmacy education; and (2) provide recommendations that may guide faculty members in their future scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) efforts that encompass assessment of course interventions.Findings. Th...

Objective. To review mastery learning and provide recommendations for implementation in a competency-based curriculumFindings. Mastery learning was introduced in the 1960s. Its goal is to ensure all students reach a desired level of mastery or competency. In this model, students acquire knowledge, skills or attitudes, complete formative assessments...

Objective To assess pharmacy faculty's knowledge of prominent and prevalent teaching and learning myths and misconceptions and evidence-based strategies prior to training.Methods Participants completed a baseline assessment containing 16 true/false knowledge questions over teaching and learning misconceptions (10) and myths (6), one open-ended appl...

The profession of pharmacy has come to encompass a myriad of identities including apothecary, dispenser, merchandiser, expert advisor, and health care provider. While these have changed over time, the responsibilities and scope of practice have not evolved to keep up with the goals of the profession and level of education of practicing pharmacists...

Objective. To provide guidance on how to design educational research studies to better capture evidence of student learning Findings. A wide variety of assessment tools are available to measure student learning associated with educational innovations. Each assessment tool is associated with different advantages and disadvantages that must be weighe...

Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are workplace responsibilities that directly impact patient care. The use of EPAs allows pharmacy faculty and preceptors to provide learners with feedback and assessment in the clinical setting. Because they focus assessment on a learner's execution of professional activities which requires integration of...

Introduction The primary objective was to assess the impact of an optional student-directed career development program on career and professional development between the second and third year of a doctor of pharmacy curriculum. Methods Students who completed the student-directed practicum (SDP) completed a nine item pre−/post-survey assessing its...

Objective. To examine the impact of pre-class concept mapping activities on pharmacy students' ability to self-assess their degree of foundational disease state knowledge and predict their pre-class quiz performance.Methods. Second year pharmacy students in a problem-based learning course were responsible for self-directed learning of foundational...

Objective. To investigate the effectiveness of using problem-solving and worked examples in teaching clinical note writing to Doctor of Pharmacy students.Methods. First year student pharmacists who were recruited to participate in the study first studied a worked example on generating a clinical note from a written patient case. Participants were t...

The ability to follow instructions is an important aspect of everyday life. Depending on the setting and context, following instructions results in outcomes that have various degrees of impact. In a clinical setting, following instructions may affect life or death. Within the context of the academic setting, following instructions or failure to do...

Objective. To determine whether perception of student learning equates to learning gains. Methods. Two-hundred seventy-seven college-aged students and student pharmacists participated in the study. Participants were assessed before and after completing a reading intervention and reported their perceptions of learning by responding to various Likert...

The novel coronavirus identified in 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted pharmacy graduate and postgraduate education. This crisis has resulted in a cosmic shift in the administration of these programs to ensure core values are sustained. Adjustments may be needed at a minimum to ensure that postgraduate trainees complete program requirements whil...

Students learn large amounts of information, but not all of it is remembered after courses end – meaning that valuable class time is often spent reviewing background material. Crucially, laboratory research suggests different strategies will be effective when reactivating previously learned information (marginal knowledge; Berger, Hall, & Bahrick,...

Introduction A student's academic success in graduate and professional school may depend on prior knowledge. However, these students may not see important and necessary material for extended periods of time between their prerequisites and their new course work. As such, they are more prone to being unable to access available information from memory...

Objective. To discuss the meaning of self-directed learning, challenges with implementation, and strategies to overcome obstacles in educational settings. In this paper we define self-directed learning, differentiate it from similar terminology, and discuss the empirical evidence for its development and strategies for its use within higher educatio...

Objective. To investigate pharmacy education researchers' experiences in conducting qualitative research and their perceptions of qualitative research in pharmacy education Methods. A phenomenological approach was used to conduct one-time, in-depth interviews with 19 participants from 12 schools and colleges of pharmacy. Interview transcripts were...

Objective. To preliminarily assess changes in Doctor of Pharmacy students' working memory performance over the course of an academic semester and to determine whether any observed changes were associated with fluctuations in stress and fatigue. Methods. Twenty-three PharmD students were recruited for this pilot study. At baseline, data were collect...

Objective. In this review, we discuss how to measure the quality of students’ metacognition in classroom and experiential settings. Our purpose is to provide a user’s guide on measuring metacognition in authentic contexts, so that instructors and researchers can explore their students’ metacognition with an aim towards improving their metacognitive...

Objective. The purpose of this review is to discuss some principles from cognitive psychology regarding the benefits of testing and translate those findings into practical applications for instruction and studying. Findings. Testing or retrieval practice is superior to re-study for promoting long-term retention. The benefits of testing can be see w...

Objective. To assess the relative effectiveness of two study strategies, rewatching a recorded lecture and retrieval practice, on Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students' long-term retention of lecture material presented in a pharmacotherapeutics class. Methods. One hundred two first-year pharmacy students were recruited for the study. All students at...

Objective. To explore the relationship between pharmacy students' social and behavioral competencies assessed using multiple mini-interviews (MMIs) and their personality traits. Methods. A retrospective study was conducted using data from two Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) cohorts. Students' self-reported scores from an externally validated tool compl...

The ergogenic effects of citrulline malate (CitMal) and beetroot juice (BEET) have been widely studied, but their effects on physiological outcomes related to resistance exercise are not fully understood. The purpose of this randomized, double-blind, crossover study was to investigate the effects of CitMal (8 g) and BEET (400 mg nitrate) on blood p...

Objective. To optimize student pharmacists' long-term retention of brand and generic drug names through spacing and modification of quiz format. Methods. In three experiments, student pharmacists learned brand and generic names for the Top 200 medications taught in a self-paced course. The students completed two spaced quizzes on the course content...

Trexler, ET, Keith, DS, Schwartz, TA, Ryan, ED, Stoner, L, Persky, AM, and Smith-Ryan, AE. Effects of citrulline malate and beetroot juice supplementation on blood flow, energy metabolism, and performance during maximum effort leg extension exercise. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2019-Citrulline malate (CitMal) and beetroot juice (BEET) are i...

Background Citrulline is an increasingly common dietary supplement that is thought to enhance exercise performance by increasing nitric oxide production. In the last 5 years, several studies have investigated the effects of citrulline supplements on strength and power outcomes, with mixed results reported. To date, the current authors are unaware o...

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to examine sources of confidence during learning to better understand metacognition and if a metacognitive intervention improves student metacognition or assessment performance. Methods: One-hundred fifty-eight doctor of pharmacy students participated in a semester-long intervention that included ratin...

Objective. To investigate factors (prior or current knowledge, metacognitive accuracy, and personality) that might impact the time it takes students to complete an examination. Methods. On the final examination, the time to complete the examination was recorded. Prior to the course, students completed the five-factor personality assessment. During...

Introduction: The study's purpose was to develop an assessment of students' metacognitive monitoring of help-seeking behavior. Methods: This study piloted an assessment of help-seeking behavior in first-year student pharmacists to answer two questions: (1) Does help-seeking behavior depend on how familiar students are with the content? and (2) W...

Introduction: Students enrolled in professional pharmacy programs tend to have high prior academic achievement. This achievement may be predicated on their learning strategies. However, when entering a professional program, it is unclear if their strategies change to adopt to a new, more rigorous academic environment. The purpose of this research...

Objective. To review the importance of and barriers to critical thinking and provide evidence-based recommendations to encourage development of these skills in pharmacy students. Findings. Critical thinking (CT) is one of the most desired skills of a pharmacy graduate but there are many challenges to students thinking critically including their own...

Objective. To elucidate how students' knowledge of future access to recorded lectures impacts their ability to immediately recall, to delay recall, and to restudy information. Methods. Seventy-eight participants were randomly divided into two groups: knowledge of future access to recorded lectures after class and knowledge of no future access to re...

Objective. To assess and elucidate the impact of student pharmacists' knowledge of future access to recorded lectures on their ability to remember information presented during lecture. Methods. Pharmacy students viewed 50 minutes of videotaped lecture in a simulated class period. For the early lecture material, participants were instructed as to wh...

Objective. To investigate the degree to which student-generated questions or answering student-generated multiple-choice questions predicts course performance in medicinal chemistry.Methods.Students enrolled in Medicinal Chemistry III over a 3-year period were asked to create at least one question per exam period using PeerWise; within the software...

The flipped classroom has garnered significant attention in medical education as a model to better promote student learning outcomes as well as student and faculty perceptions. As a pedagogical approach, the flipped classroom requires students to learn foundational material prior to class so that class time can be spent applying that material throu...

Objective. To test the impact of schedules of retrieval practice on learning brand and generic name drug information in a self-paced course.Methods.Students completed weekly quizzes on brand and generic name conversions for 100 commonly prescribed drugs. Each student completed part of the drug list on a schedule of equal, expanding, or contracting...

The integration of foundational science and clinical science education is a hallmark of educational reform within the health professions, and an increasing number of pharmacy schools are implementing integrated curricula in professional pharmacy programs. Although the foundational sciences serve as an essential framework for understanding clinical...

Objective. To describe the development and implementation of an innovative, comprehensive, multi-day module focused on assessing and providing feedback on student cognitive and interpersonal skill development and practice readiness after the first year (PY1) of a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum. Methods. A multi-day capstone assessment was d...

Objective: To address the stages of expertise development, what differentiates a novice from an expert, and how the development and differences impact how we teach our classes or design the curriculum. This paper will also address the downside of expertise and discuss the importance of teaching expertise relative to domain expertise. Summary: Exper...

A major challenge in foundational science courses in dental curricula is the application of information from the classroom to a clinical setting. To bridge this gap, the aim of this study was to increase students' learning in a foundational pharmacology course through increasing clinical relevance and using formative assessment. Second-year dental...

Objective. To evaluate the design, implementation, and outcomes of a three-week pharmacy bridging course (PBC) covering five math and science areas for first-year doctor of pharmacy students in fall 2015. Methods. Each topic was taught as a separate module. All five modules used pre- and post-module assessments to measure student knowledge and conf...

Every year our pharmacy programs enroll new students. Some of these students will transition smoothly, but others may not transition optimally. This transition issue can have potentially severe mental health consequences and be caused by a multitude of factors. We need to identify these factors, be able to identify at-risk students, and have progra...

The flipped classroom is growing in popularity in health professional education. As such, instructors are experiencing various growing pains in functionalizing this model, from justifying the approach to managing time inside and outside of class to assessing impact on learning. This review focuses on some key theories that support the flipped model...

Objective. To examine how instructor-developed reading material relates to pre-class time spent preparing for the readiness assurance process (RAP) in a team-based learning (TBL) course. Methods. Students within pharmacokinetics and physiology were asked to self-report the amount of time spent studying for the RAP. Correlation analysis and multilev...

Metacognition is an essential skill in critical thinking and self-regulated, lifelong learning. It is important for learners to have skills in metacognition because they are used to monitor and regulate reasoning, comprehension, and problem-solving, which are fundamental components/outcomes of pharmacy curricula. Instructors can help learners devel...

Conferences provide lots of opportunities to learn and poster sessions are supposed to be one of these venues. However, it seems most posters are not designed considering the reader or the venue; they are designed to reflect a potential manuscript. In this commentary, I provide a rationale why posters should be an illustrated abstract and provide s...

It is the collaborative responsibility of authors, reviewers, and editors to produce high-quality manuscripts that advance knowledge and educational practice. Experience with manuscript submissions to the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education reveal several areas for improvement that authors can make to increase their submission success rate...

Introduction In order for students to focus on deep learning and develop higher order skills, faculty need to improve the delivery of the educational experience, and students need better study skills. Methods This study surveyed student pharmacists across all four curricular years at a single institution about study strategies. Results Overall, 5...

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of 5 d of creatine (CRE) loading alone or in combination with caffeine anhydrous (CAF) or coffee (COF) on upper and lower body strength and sprint performance. Physically active males (n=54; Mean ± SD; Age = 20.1 ± 2.1 yrs; Weight = 78.8 ± 8.8 kg) completed baseline testing, consisting of one-re...

I started this academic year by paging through one of my favorite books, Brookfield’s Being a Critically Reflective Teacher.1 This work helps me reflect on my experiences as an editor, faculty developer, and instructor. I reflected on how we ask our students and clinicians to practice evidence-based medicine. Within this model, data-derived evidenc...

Objective: To examine factors that determine the interindividual variability of learning within a team-based learning environment. Methods: Students in a pharmacokinetics course were given 4 interim, low-stakes cumulative assessments throughout the semester and a cumulative final examination. Students' Myers-Briggs personality type was assessed,...

Abstract Introduction Bloom's Taxonomy has become a gold standard for writing learning objectives. Originally developed in the 1950's by Benjamin Bloom and revised in the 1990's by Lorin Anderson, Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchical model for organizing thinking skills to write clear learning objectives. Within the taxonomy's six categories build fr...

Objective: To assess the impact on student performance of increased active learning strategies in a foundational pharmacokinetics course and a clinical pharmacokinetics course over an 8-year period. Design: A foundational pharmacokinetics course with a lecture-with-active-learning (LAL) format was redesigned to a recitation-format (REC) using sm...

Service learning (SL) is an alternative to the traditional teaching model and offers valuable benefits to pharmacy students, including the opportunity to expand their community engagement and develop as active citizens. Despite numerous advantages, the current role of SL within our institution is largely unknown. The primary goal of this study was...

Within health science programs there has been a call for more faculty development, particularly for teaching and learning. The primary objectives of this review were to describe the current landscape for faculty development programs for teaching and learning and make recommendations for the implementation of new faculty development programs. A thor...

Colleges and schools of pharmacy are incorporating more team-based learning (TBL) into their curriculum. Published resources are available to assist instructors with implementing TBL and describing it in the health professions literature. The 7 core elements include: team formation, readiness assurance, immediate feedback, sequencing of in-class pr...

Objectives: To identify and characterize postgraduate year 2 (PGY2) pharmacy residency programs with a secondary emphasis on academia. Methods: Residency programs were identified using the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) online directory of residencies, fellowships, and graduate programs and cross-referenced with the American Societ...

Objectives: To assess the association between scores on the Health Sciences Reasoning Test (HSRT) and pharmacy student admission variables. Methods: During the student admissions process, cognitive data, including undergraduate grade point average and Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) scores, were collected from matriculating doctor of phar...

Objective: To evaluate the impact of institutional initiatives to enhance recruitment of minority students as a strategy to increase diversity and inclusion. Methods: The Office of Recruitment, Development, and Diversity Initiatives (ORDDI) was established and several initiatives were developed within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy to promo...

Objectives To determine which factors most influence pharmacy students’ decision to skip class from the perspective of students and faculty in schools of pharmacy in the United States. In addition, a secondary goal was to assess perceptions about the importance of classroom attendance. Methods Using self-explicated methodology, a survey was develo...

Objective: To describe and assess a course review process designed to enhance course quality. Design: A course review process led by the curriculum and assessment committees was designed for all required courses in the doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program at a school of pharmacy. A rubric was used by the review team to address 5 areas: course lay...

To assess the impact of team-based learning (TBL) in a foundational pharmacokinetics course. The course was arranged into 5 modules based on the TBL format. Each module contained preclass preparation; readiness-assurance process; and in-class, clinical cases. Survey instruments on professionalism and attitudes of team learning were administered pre...

To implement and assess an interactive, clinically applicable first-year physiology course using team-based learning. DESIGN; The course was designed on a team-based learning backbone using 6 modules, pre-class preparation, a readiness-assurance process, and in-class application. Integrative cases were used to review concepts prior to examinations....

To transition a large pharmacokinetics course that was delivered using a traditional lecture format into a smaller-group course with a discussion format. An e-book and Web-based multimedia learning modules were utilized to facilitate students' independent learning which allowed the number of classes they were required to attend to be reduced from 3...

Aging is associated with decreased muscle function and cognitive processing. Current pharmacological and nutritional therapies to slow the progression of or reverse these effects have been unremarkable. Creatine is a natural component of the diet, and, as a dietary supplement, enhances fatigue resistance, increases strength, improves the performanc...

This paper reviews trends in higher education, characterizing both the current learning environments in pharmacy education as well as a vision for future learning environments, and outlines a strategy for successful implementation of innovations in educational delivery. The following 3 areas of focus are addressed: (1) rejecting the use of the majo...

To create, implement, and evaluate an elective course on the foundational aspects of exercise prescription to increase pharmacy students' knowledge about exercise and confidence in offering exercise advice in pharmacy practice. A course was designed as an elective using the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines for exercise prescription fo...

To evaluate the effectiveness of using a jigsaw cooperative learning approach to teach basic concepts of renal clearance to pharmacy students. Students collected information on the mechanisms of renal clearance for a particular drug and proposed a methodology for circumventing a urine drug screen. Attitudinal surveys, an online quiz, and course exa...

To implement an answer-until-correct examination format for a pharmacokinetics course and determine whether this format assessed pharmacy students' mastery of the desired learning outcomes as well as a mixed format examination (eg, one with a combination of open-ended and fill-in-the-blank questions). Students in a core pharmacokinetics course were...

Estrogen has been shown to protect skeletal muscle from damage and to exert antioxidant properties. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the antioxidant and protective properties of estrogens in rodent cardiac and skeletal muscle and H9c2 cells. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were separated into three groups, ovariectomized (OVX), ovarie...

To assess the redesign of a clinical pharmacokinetics course that incorporated case-based learning to enhance group interaction and individual participation. The clinical pharmacokinetics course was divided into 3 sections based on content. Section 1 utilized case-based learning with small in-class groups; section 2 used a more traditional style of...

CreatineCentral Nervous System StimulantsAnabolic-Androgenic SteroidsConclusions AcknowledgmentReferences

To integrate a series of educational strategies ranging from content delivery to assessment, including a change in philosophy regarding the use of in-class time, to enhance learning of pharmacokinetics. Several approaches were taken to develop a significant learning experience in the basic and clinical pharmacokinetics courses including games, a pi...

To develop classroom games as alternatives to traditional pharmacokinetic instruction. three classroom games were created for the following purposes: simple semester review, application of pharmacokinetics in a community-pharmacy setting, and development of critical thinking skills and concept application. All the games incorporated some degree of...

Creatine supplementation is a widely used and heavily studied ergogenic aid. Athletes use creatine to increase muscle mass, strength, and muscle endurance. While the performance and muscle- building effects of creatine supplementation have been well documented, the mechanisms responsible for these muscular adaptations have been less studied. Object...