Ana María Martín Suárez

Virtual congresses for pharmaceutical learning

The aim of the present work was to organize the presentation of the assignment from different subjects in the Pharmacy Degree as communications at a scientific congress. The objective was to carry out face to face activities without the need for students and teachers to meet physically using the immersion capacity of the Second Life® (SL) platform and its possibilities for simulating real scenarios and situations. The activities were carried out at the facilities previously created at the USALPHARMA island in SL. Three subjects were selected and the students worked in groups. Also, a questionnaire was designed to assess student satisfaction with the assignment performed. Prior to the start of the congresses, the students had to obtain the necessary equipment and minimum skills to be able to move around in the environment, enroll themselves at the congress venue of each of the USALPHARMA congresses and send their communications in poster format by e-mail within the time specified. The posters were displayed for a week and all participants had to see all of them. Later, students and teachers met in SL, connecting to the Internet from anywhere to discuss and debate the posters. The content and presentation of these, together with their oral presentation and interventions in debates were evaluated. The assignments presented in the three activities developed mainly covered the expectations as regards structure and content. The greatest deficiency was seen in the adaptation to poster format. The technical requirements for use the Virtual World were not seen to be a limitation to carrying out the activities. As well as the learning results provided by the specific work carried out, this innovative teaching methodology increases student training in transverse competencies by simulating professional situations; it facilitates student-teacher relations and relations among the students them- selves, and it decreases the costs of the activities, since infrastructure and physical movement from one place to another are not involved.