Enhancement of pharmacology teaching through engagement with visual interactive learning approaches

As an experimental and molecular discipline, teaching innovations and advances in pharmacology are critical to keep pace with dynamic changes in the field. In particular, visual exercises bring difficult concepts to life and enable better appreciation of molecular interactions and 3D relations. Furthermore, direct interactivity with these concepts affords a more effective and personalised learning experience, and offers students control and independence over their studies. A further area of ever increasing importance is public engagement, and by making adjustments to assessed exercises, the skills required for effective outreach can be honed and developed from early stages of degree programmes.
The demonstration will focus on 2 new learning approaches developed at the University of Aberdeen designed to satisfy these criteria.
1. 3D printing project: to explore areas of drug molecular interactions with targets, drug design and public engagement. The specific demonstration around this exercise will permit use of 3D modelling software, interactions with 3D models of drugs and their targets, as well we viewing videos that students have prouced to demonstrates 3D drug function.

2. Humanised pharmacokinetic models: to enhance the quality and applicability of laboratory practical classes which model pharmacokinetics. A selection of videos will inform on the design of these humanised models, and will also serve to demonstrate the flexibility of these in teaching broad areas related to pharmacokinetics.
Overall, the demonstration will showcase these interactive and visual teaching methods with a view to promoting their wider dissemination and use across the sector.