What can the uptake of online pharmacy education in Scotland, during the COVID-19 pandemic, tells us about the future of CPD?

Abstract

Pharmacy CPD in Scotland has been evolving towards online, asynchronous delivery since 2014. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this movement by restricting face-to-face education (Zlotos & Stewart, 2021). This study utilised Google analytics to describe web traffic, and electronic e-learning completion records to describe learner activity on the Virtual Learning Environment of a national CPD provider in Scotland. The aim was to describe patterns of learning activity in the years spanning the COVID-19 pandemic, to help predict what future education practice may look like. This study identified that there was an increase in estimated time spent on learning from 8085.5 vs 16,061.5 hours of learning in 2018-19 and 2020-21, respectively. Completion of non-mandatory clinical modules and mandatory service modules increased each year. Mandatory, service focussed modules were most popular each year and the number of completions peaked to coincide with new services or updated content. The findings suggest asynchronous, online pharmacy education continues to grow in popularity. CPD providers should prioritise Mandatory, Service focussed education for pharmacy staff; although, they cannot neglect non-mandatory and Clinical education too. Future education for CPD should be designed to reflect the growing and diverse learner population.