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Background: In their required fall semester course, “Exploring Pharmacy," first year pre-pharmacy students were assigned a group project to explore different aspects of the opioid crisis through the creation of an infographic and PowerPoint presentation. The instructors of this course were frustrated with the quality of the AMA style citations in both the final infographics and the PowerPoint presentations from previous years and sought an innovative pedagogical approach to teaching AMA style with the support of the health sciences librarian.
Description: In the summer of 2020, the librarian was invited by the instructors of “Exploring Pharmacy” to introduce pre-pharmacy students to basic information literacy concepts, plagiarism, and how to create AMA style citations in order to support their group projects. The librarian successfully lobbied to spread out the content into two 75-minute class periods: the first would cover information literacy concepts, and the second would cover plagiarism and AMA style citations. The design of the citations class focused on the importance of citing sources, breaking down the essential components of an AMA citation using pharmacy examples from the library’s catalog, and having the students collaboratively work on a short in-class activity that scaffolded the content with each successive question. Formative feedback was gathered using Poll Everywhere throughout the class.
Conclusion: Initial verbal feedback from the instructors was positive regarding the new pedagogical approach to AMA style citation instruction. As the group projects were being presented and graded later in the semester, one instructor highlighted that the citations have improved significantly from previous years. Based on the student evaluations of the session, the pre-pharmacy students also appreciated the opportunity and the attention given to citations in a low-stakes environment. However, even after a 75-minute class period, students indicated that they would like more time and opportunities to practice creating and editing citations to feel confident in their abilities.