At the beginning of this semester I asked my 2nd year undergraduates, Who has a website? Out of the sea of students, only one put up the hand, ever so gingerly while looking for another one from other students. Looking for support…
Then I said, we’re going to do a website assignment this semester. The assignment is for FAR212 Principles of Medicinal Chemistry. It’d be based on the key message for health awareness. Their responses were:
‘Oh noo…’ ‘What?…’ ‘Too much work…’
To equip them with the new digital skill, I conducted a 2-hour workshop on building a website for this assignment. Free websites were explored in the workshop: Weebly and Google Sites. Wix is another free site. I created a rubric for the website assignment, mainly based on Weebly Rubric assignment available on the web, to guide students on how their work will be graded.
Fast-forward to the end of the semester, my students pm their supervisors the website links. To my amazement, many of the student-produced websites look polished and professional! Informative, interactive, playful, creative and funny. Responses from visitors are also very positive and encouraging. Who says pharmacy students are so studious or nerds? 😉
Please visit my students’ websites below:
Group 1: You’re Sweet Enough, Together We Fight Diabetes. https://yeswee.weebly.com
Group 2: Cancer, All of It. https://2yap2us.wixsite.com/cancer
Group 3: Neomycin, https://neomycin.weebly.com
Group 4: Diabetes Management, https://medchem4all.wixsite.com/diabetes
Group 5: Asthma, https://asthma990.weebly.com
Group 6: Hypertension, The World’s Leading Silent Killer. https://hypertension25.weebly.com
Group 7: ‘Anti-alzheimers’ by Angel Minds, https://angelminds.wixsite.com/antialzheimer
Group 8: USM’s Stroke Awareness Website (USAW), https://edwardtan25.wixsite.com/u-s-a-w
Group 9: E-Cephalothin, https://hafiziedianel.wixsite.com/e-cephalothin
Group 10: HIV & AIDS, https://sites.google.com/view/hivaidsfar212group10/home
Group 11: Pneumonia, https://far212group11.wixsite.com/pneumonia20
I strongly feel that creating a website will equip my students with 21st century digital skills. Even though, the course is about medicinal chemistry i.e. the study of drug-protein interactions at molecular level, the website assignment will help my students to zoom out. My hope is that they’d gain a big picture view of a particular drug and/or diseases. conditions. The skills will be of value in the world they are living in. And it is aligned with the crucial role of pharmacists in patient education.
When they graduate, not only will they become pharmacists, but also pharmacists equipped with digital communication skills in health awareness and dissemination. More importantly, communication skills that engage the public, communities–one that reaches out wherever patients are–urban and rural. Skills that makes a difference in their patients’ lives.
