Background: In the Doctor of Pharmacy program at our institution, first-year pharmacy students (P1s) are introduced to literature searching during the Introduction to Drug Information course. The liaison librarian embedded into this course found that students were struggling with feeling confident in their literature searching skills despite participating in active-learning activities. An area of opportunity was identified through the course evaluation feedback that students wanted more fun and engaging ways to practice literature searching. This paper will discuss one librarian’s experience with gamification, and provide two examples of gamified literature searching instruction sessions.
Description: Introduction to Drug Information is set up in a completely flipped classroom style, where students watch pre-class videos, and complete pre-class assignments before coming to an in-person 50-minute lecture. During these in-person lectures, active learning techniques are used to reinforce the skills taught in the pre-class videos. Literature searching is taught over a two-week period and is broken up into basic searching techniques and advanced searching techniques. Previously, the active learning strategy utilized was a handout that students needed to complete before being reviewed as a group. After reviewing the literature and conference abstracts for currently used techniques, two more interactive strategies were selected. A crossword puzzle was created for the basic literature searching instruction, and a virtual escape room was created for the advanced literature searching instruction. Students were given the option to work individually or in small groups. Initial feedback from the students has been positive, and formalized feedback will be collected at the conclusion of the course.
Conclusion: Overall the gamification of literature searching in this course was a success in getting students more engaged with the content. Student feedback after each session was positive, and a comparison of end-of-year evaluations showed that students enjoyed gamification, even going as far as to ask for more games and more group work. Students scored higher on their literature searching assignment after implementing these activities and the librarian received fewer emails asking for clarification or requesting to meet. Future steps include a research project to evaluate ways to incentivize student engagement with flipped content throughout the course.
.png)
