WikiVet
A learner's perspective
by
Beverley Panto
The last five years have witnessed major
changes in the way that e-learning has been used to enhance veterinary
education. As a recent veterinary student, I have experienced first hand the impact of many of these
developments during the course of my studies at the Royal Veterinary College. This article attempts to demonstrate one way in which
veterinary students have really started to influence and benefit from these new
opportunities through the creation of WikiVet.
On my first day at
College, I was given a printed timetable, a library card and a set of notes. The only glimmer on the technological horizon was my
new e-mail address! As a new generation of increasingly computer
literate students, we fast identified this traditional approach of face-to-face lectures, practical
dissection classes and textbooks, as inadequate. Fortunately, before the end of
our first year, we were introduced to the brand new virtual learning environment (VLE) which revolutionised our learning experience by enabling remote access to
teaching materials.
The
VLE was followed by access to an
abundance of innovative, interactive learning materials to complement and
supplement our veterinary education: from
lecture podcasts and video streaming, to interactive quizzes, online gradebooks
and comprehensive web-based resources. We quickly recognised that we could develop these
materials to further enhance our learning and started to adopt a facilitative
role in encouraging academics to create more student friendly teaching resources.
The
shift to web based resources has also
created problems for students
trying to find relevant, current and reliable online resources in the midst of
a plethora of questionable sites. Free collaborative wikis, such as the
ubiquitous Wikipedia
are now widely used by
students as a reference
source. However, despite its
undoubted value, there are obvious concerns
regarding its use in veterinary education. It is not intended as an
educational reference work, has limited veterinary specific content and is open
to entries and revision by the general public.
In
2007 a number of UK
veterinary schools began to explore the possibility of creating a common
veterinary wiki. WikiVet was born out of the vision of developing a peer
reviewed, comprehensive
curriculum wiki to enhance the teaching of veterinary medicine. The intention has been to
create a high quality resource, which can be used as a reliable reference work
by students anywhere in the world. The initiative now involves staff and
students at four UK veterinary schools with support from the Higher Education
Academy (HEA) and Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
One
of the inspiring things about WikiVet for me is that the collaborative approach has allowed us to draw upon
the wealth of skills, experience and enthusiasm that students have to offer.
Veterinary students are invariably very opinionated regarding teaching methods,
and are prepared to take an active role in conceiving and developing new
solutions. As developers, we have been able to harness this enthusiasm in order
to steer the evolution of WikiVet in the right direction and feel confident
that we are creating a site that will fulfill the real needs of students and young
graduates in the future.
The first section of
the WikiVet to
be developed was called WikiPath which was worked on by over
10 students from different veterinary schools. This has been followed by WikiAnatomy, WikiBugs, WikiDrugs, WikiNormals
and WikiPublic Health. New
sections currently in development include WikiClinical, a clinical based
section, and WikiWild, a section on wild animals and conservation. Certain
areas of the veterinary curriculum such as anatomy, histology and microbiology
demand visual skills including recognition and identification, so in addition
to the text content, there are also thousands of images and videos to further enhance the value of the site.
Assessment
drives veterinary education and so we have now started work on an exciting new section called WikiTest. This is a Royal College of Veterinary
Surgeons Trust funded initiative to provide students with a quality assured,
self directed learning and assessment resource within the site. I have taken on the role of
WikiTest Project Coordinator and am working with students and academics from
four UK veterinary schools
to develop a bank of multiple
choice questions based on the entire veterinary curriculum, with comprehensive
positive and negative feedback, including links back into the relevant WikiVet
pages. This will act both as a tool for students, to help them prepare for
exams throughout the veterinary course and as a refresher for graduates.
Figure 1: WikiVet homepage
Whilst the site is
still very much in its infancy, the number of WikiVet registrations has grown
rapidly since its launch in October 2008, and to date there are over 3,000
members worldwide. The majority of these at present are UK users, but there are
also a large number of members from overseas including from North America, Europe and Asia. Significantly, we also have a
growing membership in the developing world where WikiVet provides a valuable
and up to date substitute for textbooks and other teaching materials, which are
less widely available.
WikiVet
has demonstrated to me that students do have an important role to play in
helping develop learning resources for the 21st Century. I feel
proud to have contributed to starting this process in veterinary education and
am sure that many of the next generation of students will also be up for the
challenge.
Beverley Panto
Royal Veterinary College 2009
graduate
bpanto@rvc.ac.uk
Links
WikiVet: w01.rvcwiki.wf.ulcc.ac.uk/index.php/Main_Page
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