Introduction

The Pharmacogenomics course (PHAR560) is a fourth-year course offered to our pharmacy students at the Lebanese International University (LIU) School of Pharmacy. This is a relatively young biomedical science that introduces a newly emerging, genetic-based, discipline in therapeutics, which focuses on individual genetic variations and to study the effect of genetic makeup and racial differences on drug response, adverse effects, and pharmacokinetics. It also offers the opportunity of designing new, gene-based therapeutic options and new methods of using pre-existing drugs.

Scope, Aim and Activities

With the advance of genomics in medicine and pharmacy today, we aim to make students understand the potential impact of pharmacogenomics in tailoring drug therapy. This, together with the digital literacy of the current generation of students and with the online shift of education triggered by COVID-19, have made us think of better online tools to deliver pharmacogenomics material.

  • Aided by DIGIHEALTH training on open education resources (OERs), we started to look into available options for online pharmacogenomics courses. This is a very good alternative for getting updated books and resources especially under the current financial and economic circumstances.
  • We created an online instructor profile for course instructors.
  • We started drafting a pharmacogenomics book online to introduce the knowledge and share later with our students. Link to the book: https://en.wikitolearn.org/User:Dalal_Hammoudi/Pharmacogenomics

What is the Expected Impact that OERs Will Have on Our Teaching?

  • Create an open education mindset, to broaden our scope of teaching, online visibility and interaction.
  • Add to the repertoire of skills needed for us as teachers of today.
  • Explore new resources in pharmacogenomics, perhaps from other scholars and experts in the field, as well as institutions.
  • Have new online material to provide to today’s students, coping with their digital skills.

Shared by: Dr. Dalal Hammoudi and Dr. Hadi Dassouki
Image Credit: Dr. Dalal Hammoudi