Development and Evaluation of Computer-Based Tutorials in Biochemistry and Medicinal Chemistry

During the past two years, computer-based tutorials were developed and evaluated as instructional tools in biochemistry and medicinal chemistry courses. The tutorials, which review and encourage application of key concepts within these subject areas, were developed using the authoring software program ToolBook. The tutorials are tailored to the instructor’s courses and allow students to work at their own pace. Unlike traditional study resources (i.e., textbooks and lecture notes), these computer tutorials contain embedded questions which allow students to actively apply concepts to novel situations. Feedback in the form of text, structures, and diagrams provides students with an immediate assessment of their understanding of each topic. The tutorials were made available in the School’s Pharmacy and Computer Resource Center. Additionally, copies of the tutorial, packaged along with runtime versions of the software, were distributed to students who owned or had access to an off-campus, Intel-based computer. Assessment of the tutorials was conducted using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. To date, enhancement of student examination performance has not been demonstrated; however, the length and manner in which students used the tutorials may have prevented the detection of real performance differences across user and nonuser groups. Future studies will address these areas. Despite the above results, qualitative evaluation of student perceptions of the tutorials’ utility have been overwhelmingly positive and interest in using the tutorials has increased steadily over the past two years.