Attendance at pharmacology workshops correlates with academic achievement regardless of delivery mode (on-campus or online)

In recent years (2021–2023), we have offered pharmacology subjects in ‘StudyFlex’ mode, allowing students to attend workshops either on-campus (blended) or online. This study aimed to investigate changes in student preference for mode of attendance, and whether attendance or mode of attendance was related to academic performance.

We collected data from 559 students enrolled in an introductory pharmacology subject and examined preference for mode of study, workshop attendance and subject results. The only difference between the instances was the mode of delivery of weekly 2-h workshops; the same academics conducted all workshops for both cohorts, and all other learning materials were delivered online.

Student preference for on-campus (blended) workshops in this subject increased over this period, while preference for online workshops decreased accordingly. Workshop attendance increased for the blended cohort but decreased for the online cohort in 2023 (Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA followed by Dunn's post-hoc test). Test marks and overall subject marks were highly correlated with workshop attendance, independent of attendance mode (non-parametric Spearman's correlation, all P < 0.05), but average marks were not different between the two cohorts in any semester (Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA followed by Dunn's post-hoc test).

Despite a shift in preference for on-campus versus online workshops, the mode of workshop attendance had no significant effect on academic performance. Greater workshop attendance, independent of attendance mode, was correlated with improved academic performance. This analysis highlights the utility of online workshops, which were equally effective as blended classes in pharmacology teaching in this subject.