QUALITY ASSURANCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF E-LEARNING COURSES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY AT BUKOVINIAN STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Abstract. The opinion of students on the excellence of educational services is not only an effective tool for monitoring the quality of educational services but also a prerequisite for compliance with European standards of quality assurance in higher education.

The study aimed to find out the opinion of the customers of educational services in terms of the quality of information provision for e-learning courses in chemistry disciplines, which are enclosed in Krok 1 and Krok 2 structure of the Unified State Qualification Exam (USQE), as well as considering the forms of the educational process organization for students at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Bukovinian State Medical University.

During the autumn semester of 2023–2024, an anonymous survey was conducted among 3–5-year students of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Department of Medical and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. The questionnaire of Romaniuk L. B. was used as a basis, which was modified by the authors of the article. The questionnaire covered 11 questions about the quality of education materials prepared by the teachers of the department, the frequency of their use by students when preparing for classes, as well as the forms of organization of the educational process (online lectures in synchronous mode and video lectures and video consultations in asynchronous mode). The study involved 174 respondents, including 95 (100 %) full-time students and 79 (100 %) part-time students, who were asked to respond to several questions about the quality of information provision in analytical, organic, pharmaceutical, physical, and colloidal chemistry. Students use educational materials in electronic format, which is provided by various means. The Moodle platform contains syllabuses, thematic plans of lectures and practical classes, author's manuals, video recordings of lectures, lecture presentations, methodological materials for practical classes and self-study guides for students, databases of test questions for each practical class in training and control modes, videos of practical work, as well as a separate database of test questions from the USQE booklets (Krok 1, Krok 2) of previous years.

Among the respondents, 166 (95.8 % of full-time and 96.2 % of part-time students) have been satisfied with the quality of teaching materials in chemistry disciplines, which indicates that the materials meet the needs of students. At the same time, 22 (23.2 %) full-time and 65 (82.3 %) part-time students, in addition to the university's e-learning courses, often use other Websites, which shows the need to improve the courses designed. 162 (93.1 %) respondents believe the offered number of online lectures in synchronous mode is sufficient. At the same time, 83 (47.7 %) students constantly use lecture presentations to prepare for classes, and 76 (43.7 %) respondents use lecture presentations only sometimes. 141 (76.8 % of full-time and 86.1 % of part-time respondents believe that video lectures facilitate lesson preparation, and 72 (39.1 %) respondents have used video lectures from other Web resources only if they are not available in the e-learning courses in Moodle. In the opinion of 158 (90.8 % of full-time and 88.6 % of part-time students), it is necessary to spend more time on practical classes to prepare for the USQE. In addition, 75 (78 %) full-time and 74 (93.7 %) part-time students believe that the availability of video consultations when preparing for the integrated test exam on the Moodle platform will enhance preparation for the exam. When choosing the most effective course, the respondents consider the availability of tests with teacher comments to prepare for the USQE (47.7 % of all respondents), lecture presentations (38.5 %), video lectures (25.9 %), and video of the experimental part of practical classes (18.4 %) of good quality, as indicated by the respondents in their questionnaires.

More than 95 % of the surveyed students of 3–5-year of study at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Bukovinian State Medical University generally positively assess the quality of the educational content in chemistry disciplines included in the structure of the USQE, prepared by the teachers of the Department of Medical and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. The presence of video lectures in e-learning courses has received a positive response from more than 80 % of students, and 85 % of respondents have been satisfied with the published video consultations for preparation for the USQE. About 90 % of students prefer to spend more time in practical classes preparing for the USQE, and 48 % want to solve tests assisted by mandatory explanations from teachers. The findings of the study allow teachers to adjust the quality of students' learning content and take reasonable measures in the short term.