Implementation of a research capstone course with expanded flexibility.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: A research-focused capstone course was designed to improve flexibility in the way pharmacy students meet the university's capstone requirement. The requirement aims to integrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes from didactic coursework and to apply them in a scholarly way to improve critical and evidence-based thinking, communication skills, and professionalism. This report describes the capstone course and faculty and student perceptions after the first year of implementation.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: The course allows students to work with a faculty advisor on a four-semester hour research project of mutual interest that can be completed in any one of three semesters. After the first student cohort completed their projects, faculty and student perceptions were captured via electronic survey.

FINDINGS: A total of 38 students (36%) and 22 advisors (71%) responded to the survey. Approximately 90% of students and faculty agreed that student groups had achieved course objectives upon completion. Although faculty members felt that participating in the capstone course increased their workload and in some cases reduced their productivity, faculty members felt that the course had a beneficial impact for students.

SUMMARY: The new capstone course was well received. The flexibility of the course was both a strength and a limitation as most students wanted more structure in the expectations and grading of the project in the form of a rubric or other standardized assessments.