The introduction of new teaching methods in pharmacy education – II. The starting point

This article is the second in a series that describes the reform of the pharmacy studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). This reform was necessary to prepare pharmacists to be able to face with the challenges of the 21st century.
Here, we describe the main educational innovations in the first year of the Bachelors degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences. The focus is on the course "Line project I : from molecule to patient". The basis of this course is project-based learning, but several other contemporary and original educational methods were combined.
This course is the starting point of a "line project", which continues throughout the three years of the Bachelors degree. Students can now explicitly demonstrate their newly acquired competences and also integrate them in a portfolio and in a public presentation. The portfolio is an instrument to show the development of competences and to reflect about these competences.