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AMEE:
See also:
Royal Veterinary College presentations at the 2011 AMEE Conference in Vienna.
Royal Veterinary College presentations at the 2009 AMEE Conference in Malaga.
Royal Veterinary College presentations at the 2008 AMEE Conference in Prague.
Timothy Scase*, Gillian Brown, Brian Cox, Susan Rhind, Nick Short, Ken Smith, Kim Whittlestone
Download The WikiVet project (3.4MB .ppt)
Background: A community of practice (CoP) was established and a collaborative resource was devised using a wiki to share knowledge, teaching materials and experiences between students and staff at UK veterinary schools.
Summary of work: ‘WikiVet’( http://www.vetschools.ac.uk/wikivet/ ) was developed, facilitated by a HEA-funded CoP and supported by the JISC. This project utilised MediaWiki as a platform for a wiki, based on the undergraduate veterinary pathology course. Content from the participating vet schools (Cambridge, Edinburgh and London) was edited and uploaded by undergraduate students. Communication between participants was through GoogleGroup forums, Skype conference calls and face-to-face meetings. Over 630 pages of media-rich content have been generated. Content to aid processing and contextualization of the content has been developed, including problem-based learning exercises, case histories and ‘flash-cards’. The site will expand further by integration of veterinary physiology and anatomy, in collaboration with Nottingham Veterinary School.
Conclusions: The potential for national collaboration using a wiki has been demonstrated with pathology as the ‘test case’. The project will be developed to cover other areas of the undergraduate veterinary curriculum.
Take-home messages: “Web 2.0” technologies have been used to develop a collaborative and nationally important resource for veterinary education.
Nick Short, RVC Students
Download Encouraging students to take the "e-nitiative" (1.4MB .ppt)
Background: The veterinary student of today has grown up surrounded by all things electronic. These “digital natives” are often more adept and confident at using e-learning than their teachers. In response to this trend, the RVC has adopted an approach of “learning from the learners” when trying to maximize the potential of using web 2.0 tools to support teaching.
Summary of work: The RVC has established student focus groups in each academic year to identify student needs. Students have then been supported to develop the resources they have requested. This has resulted in a wide range of excellent new developments including a Facebook induction site, audio lecturing recording, student videos and a student driven wiki.
Summary of results: Students have shown that they are often better placed to get the most of web 2.0 technologies. As a result the College has been able to tap in to a large new group of developers who have greatly increased the pace and quality of e-learning development.
Conclusions/Take-home messages: Students are an often underutilized resource in the provision of e-learning. Involving them in the planning and development process ensures that e-learning is based upon appropriate and accessible technologies.
Brian Cox, Raymond Macharia, Nick Short, Kim Whittlestone
Download Using "potcasting" to teach veterinary anatomy (3.5MB .pdf)
Background: The RVC has a large collection of underutilized but well preserved anatomical specimens in glass pots. Many are prizewinning dissections, but lack of descriptions limits their use by students. In an effort to bring these old pots to life, the College has been exploring ways to make the specimens more accessible and educational to students.
Summary of work: Dissected specimens showing structures of relevance to the curriculum were selected by the anatomists. Each pot was videoed, and a voice over describing key features was added with key-view annotations to create an illustrated digital guide. These “potcasts” were accessed via an iPod or computer.
Summary of results: Over 50 potcasts have been created and are now widely used by students. Focus group surveys report that the potcasts have reinforced students’ learning and provide a valuable new resource, connecting them with teachers.
Conclusions: They regard the potcasts as high quality 3D guides. Students with iPods can revise on the move.
Take-home messages: Technology was used to reinvent old museum specimens to create a more engaging 21st century resource. Whilst this uses the latest mobile devices to deliver the content, it still integrates and enhances the traditional veterinary anatomy curriculum.
Vicki H M Dale, Stan D Head, Stephen A May
Download Development of a generic evaluation inventory for a new curriculum with increased self-directed learning (254KB .pdf)
Background:The Royal Veterinary College (RVC), University of London, recently implemented a new Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVetMed) curriculum with a strong focus on self-directed learning. A generic evaluation inventory was developed to assess the quality of the curriculum through student perceptions.
Summary of work: Using a modified version of the Delphi technique, a panel of expert stakeholders (including senior management officials, academic development staff, an educational researcher, a student support officer and student representatives) reviewed a draft inventory in two stages. Experts rated the statements on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree that items should be included) to 5 (strongly agree that item should be included).
Summary of results: Excluding statements with a mean value less than 4 resulted in an inventory with 92 items, distributed to first year students towards the end of the first term. Factor analysis on the results produced 41 statements correlated at a level of 0.5 or above with one of seven main factors: (1) directed learning classes, (2) private study, (3) practical classes, (4) tutors and tutorials, (5) learning objectives and assessment, (6) timetabling and (7) interactive self-assessment tools. The reliability of each scale of the evaluation inventory was measured using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and was shown to be moderate (0.65) to high (0.85).
Conclusions/Take-home messages: This work has resulted in the production of a user-friendly evaluation inventory for assessing students’ perceptions of a self-directed curriculum, available to other veterinary schools and colleagues in allied disciplines.
Vicki H M Dale, Stan D Head, Stephen A May
Download Students’ first impressions of a new curriculum with increased self-directed learning (2.4MB .ppt)
Background:The Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVetMed) curriculum at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has recently undergone transformation, in response to growing evidence in veterinary education that self-directed learning approaches result in more meaningful learning than traditional approaches characterised by rote memorisation. The new curriculum was introduced in October 2007.
Summary of work:Using a modified version of the Delphi technique, an inventory of 90+ statements with Likert scale ratings and 20 open text boxes was designed and distributed to students at the end of their sixth week, as part of the formative evaluation process.
Summary of results/Conclusions: Responses were received from 181/210 students (86.2%). Students were most satisfied with lectures and practical classes, but felt that they needed clearer learning objectives, particularly in relation to personal study sessions, as well as better feedback from tutors in tutorials and directed learning sessions. Professional skills (including learning support) classes were viewed as of secondary importance to ‘content’ classes on body systems. There was strong evidence of students wanting to be given the information they felt they should know in order to pass examinations.
Take-home messages: Despite a diverse student population, students (particularly graduates) generally come into veterinary school favouring a traditional, surface approach to learning, with an emphasis on content rather than process. These initial findings highlight the need for better scaffolding, in terms of providing support for students as independent learners, and staff training to enable teachers to move students away from dependency acquired during previous secondary and Higher Education experiences.
The following two presentations were given on the 27th August 2007 at the AMEE Conference in Trondheim. Further background information is available on both these presentations by following the links below.
'Practice Imperfect' - Using interactive theatre in veterinary education to promote mental health awareness
Anita Lane and Nick Short
Veterinary Podcasting
Student recording and publishing of first year lectures
Silvia Janska and Nick Short
For further information on these presentations, please email Nick Short at the RVC e-Media Unit.
AMEE 2007, Trondheim, Norway 25-29 August 2007 Conference Website RVC AMEE Pages
