Plaintiff or Defendant: Using Legal Cases to Teach Students Pharmacy Law

Objective

To demonstrate the value of students using actual legal cases during collaborative “breakout” sessions in a pharmacy law class.

Design

Students were broken into smaller groups and randomly assigned a legal case to arbitrate or defend. One week prior to the groups'' presentation, all students were given the facts of a case that was reflective of issues covered during the lecture component of the course. Formative assessments were utilized in addition to an overall breakout satisfaction survey administered at the end of the course.

Assessment

Overall, students felt the breakout sessions enhanced their learning environment and reinforced material covered during the didactic portion of the course. Students also recommended the breakout sessions for future pharmacy law courses.

Conclusion

Dividing a large pharmacy law class into 2 sections of 12 groups each and conducting mock trials resulted in increased student participation and interaction and deeper understanding of the course content.