title: A case study in experiential learning: pharmaceutical cold chain management on wheels.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  People who handle and regulate temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products require the knowledge and skills to ensure those products maintain quality, integrity, safety, and efficacy throughout their shelf life. People best acquire such knowledge and skills through "experiential learning" that involves working with other learners and experts.
  
  
  METHODS
  The World Health Organization developed a weeklong experiential learning event for participants so they could gain experience in how temperature-sensitive products are handled, stored, and distributed throughout the length of the distribution supply chain system. This experiential learning method enabled participants to visit, critically observe, discuss and report on the various components of the cold chain process. An emphasis was placed on team members working together to learn from one another and on several global expert mentors who were available to guide the learning, share their experiences, and respond to questions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The learning event, Pharmaceutical Cold Chain Management on Wheels, has been conducted once each year since 2008 in Turkey with participants from the global pharmaceutical industry, health care providers, national regulatory authorities, and suppliers/vendors. Observations made during the course showed that it was consistent with the principles of experiential and social learning theories. Questionnaires and focus groups provided evidence of the value of the learning event and ways to improve it.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reflecting the critical elements derived from experiential and social learning theories, five factors contributed to the success of this unique experiential learning event. These factors may also have relevance in other experiential learning courses and, potentially, for experiential e-learning events.
authors.affiliation: LearningPlus, Inc., Rochester, New York 14620, USA. jvesper@learningplus.com
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vesper
authors.forename: Ümit
authors.initials: Ü
authors.lastname: Kartoglu
authors.forename: Rafik
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bishara
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reeves
mesh_terms: D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008611:Mentors; D010593:Pharmaceutical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D012034:Refrigeration; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D014421:Turkey; D014944:World Health Organization