Use of an Education Specialist Team that Collaborates with Faculty Members to Efficiently and Continuously Develop an Innovative Pharmacy Curriculum Across Multiple Campuses

This paper describes a unique organizational approach involving education specialists and faculty members in the continuous development of a Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum. The described curriculum includes extensive use of technology with blended learning and use of interactive videoconferencing to three campuses. This curriculum is competency-based, integrated with teaching by faculty members from multiple disciplines and includes spiraling to promote deep learning. Student-centered personal and professional development facilitates achievement of soft-skills. The education specialists involved in curriculum development include instructional designers, experienced educators who provide daily course management and assist in the classroom, and an assessment specialist. The premise of this model is that the education specialist team provides expertise that will promote curricular efficacy and excellence, and by assuming instructional tasks that do not require content expertise they allow faculty members to more efficiently accomplish teaching responsibilities.