Individual vs. Team Based Readiness Assurance Testing in Pharmacy Calculations

Team based learning in the form of its readiness assurance test (RAT) application is a popular instructional intervention in health professions education. This investigation was conducted to examine the extent to which individual and team readiness assurance tests correlate with conventional assessment outcomes in pharmacy calculations. Students encountered IRAT and TRAT assessments on the Blackboard learning management platform during their pharmacy calculations laboratory course. The RAT assessments addressed topics concurrently with examination topics in the pharmacy calculations lecture course. Students were also assigned self-paced online module assessments pertaining to each lecture topic. Both sets of student lecture assessment scores were compared to their respective RAT performances using Spearman's rank correlation measurements. Low-to-moderate correlations were observed between students' IRAT scores and lecture course assessment scores, which includes examinations and online modules. Several correlations were statistically significant among topics. Very low-to-low correlations were observed between students' TRAT scores and lecture course assessment scores. IRAT scores better correlated to final exam performances than TRAT scores. RAT assessments, particularly IRAT, may serve as indicators of subsequent assessment performance in pharmacy calculations. Use of RAT may also assist students in their preparations for comprehensive assessments in the subject.