Students’ perceptions about social constructivist learning environment in e-learning

Aim/Background: Pharmacy educators often incorporate electronic learning or e-learning to facilitate learning among pharmacy students. E-learning can be designed based on the Social Constructivism Theory (SCT). The learning outcomes of e-learning that is developed based on the SCT should be assessed continuously and they should include the evaluation of students’ perceptions on the Social Constructivist Learning Environment (SCLE) of their e-learning. The present study aims to investigate pharmacy students' expectations for their e-learning and evaluate the extent to which e-learning fulfils their expectations.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out among the second- and third-year undergraduate pharmacy students in a Malaysian public university to assess the students’ perceptions on the SCLE of two e-learning components offered in two core courses: Principle of Pathology (PP) and Pharmaceutical Care (PC) using the Constructivist Online Learning Environment Survey (COLLES).

Results: All students who were invited to participate in the study responded to the survey (response rate = 100%, n = 336). In general, students had positive but moderate expectations and satisfaction towards e-learning. Students mostly expected e-learning to be relevant to their professional practice. The second-year PP students were satisfied with their e-learning, but the third year PC students rated their experience to be lower than their expectations.

Conclusion: As a conclusion, although e-learning that was developed based on the SCT can resulted in SCLE, the expectations of the third-year pharmacy students were harder to fulfil compared to their younger counterparts. This warrants innovation in e-learning content and processes for the third-year students.