Pharmacy Student Leaders' Perspectives on the Impact of COVID-19 on their Learning: SWOC Analysis

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruptions in many aspects of life across the globe including education provision. This pandemic led to major and rapid restructuring of curricula and assessments as student suddenly moved to unfamiliar learning environment. Active involvement of students in the education process and curricula reform is encouraged. This paper aimed to explore pharmacy student leaders' perspectives related to their learning during COVID-19 pandemic in terms of strengths, weakness, opportunities, challenges and recommendations to move forward. A meeting with pharmacy student leaders was convened. Each student leader individually reflected on their experiences using a structured SWOC (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Challenges) framework which was then used to guide discussion. Each student then rated anonymously the importance and the probability of the themes to come up with overall score. Online learning came with both negative and positive aspects from the students' point of view. Despite the efforts that were made by the college and students to adapt to the new educational system, there were drawbacks that affected the quality of the education. Pharmacy programs need to implement strategies within their programs about disaster preparedness and build student resilience and wellbeing.