Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Teaching

Dr. Denton's teaching includes various pharmaceutical science laboratory and research survey-based courses along with previous experience in writing courses. His teaching philosophy is that advancing inquiry-based and universally designed teaching is essential to prepare innovative and well-rounded research teams capable of addressing complex challenges in pharmacy practice.

Dr. Denton's research group investigations include professional identity formation, teamwork development, inquiry-based learning, metacognitive coaching, healthcare disparity elucidation, course-based undergraduate research experiences, community-based teaching, information/research literacy, social annotation, education technology practices, and various projects advancing discipline-based education research and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Dr. Denton’s primary service efforts include promoting undergraduate research, professional development in education research, and maintaining an equal opportunity environment for all learners through various committees and affiliation with the Michael V. Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning.

Dr. Downing’s professional interests include designing meaningful learning experiences that enhance a learner’s health and well-being. In the classroom, she evaluates the impact of using evidence-based instructional strategies during the course design process on college student well-being measures, such as safe medication practice behaviors and healthcare self-efficacy. Outside the classroom, Dr. Downing supports the design and development of prevention education resources that help teach safe medication practices across the lifespan.

Dr. Mefford is interested in the use of active learning to promote student engagement with science and to foster deeper understanding of often controversial topics associated with drug use and addiction. She strives to instill good research techniques to help engrain learning as a lifelong process.

Professor Jennifer (Jen) Plahovinsak is the Director of the Master of Science in Translational Pharmacology program. Jen’ s research focuses on the design and development of technology-enhanced learning environments for science education, graphic and instructional design to support learning, key learner characteristics for graduate students, curricular development for online toxicology courses, and quality strategies for online program success. Additionally, her interests include the development of relevant preclinical models to support medical countermeasure research programs. Jen has been certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology since 2015.