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Creating Veterinary Public Health Online Cases by Students for Students

Veronica Duckwitz, Leonie Gnewuch, Lena Vogt, Claudia Hautzinger, Sebastian Haase, Marcus Fulde, Christa Thöne-Reineke, Mechthild Wiegard, Marcus G. Doherr

Veronica Duckwitz is a doctoral student and coordinator of the QuerVet-Project, Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Freie Universität Berlin. Email: . Her research focuses on implementing blended learning modules into interdisciplinary lectures with the main topic of veterinary public health and investigating student satisfaction.

Leonie Gnewuch is a veterinary student and student assistant at the QuerVet-Project, Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Biostatistics of the Freie Universität Berlin. Email: . Her research focus is on creating e-learning cases about veterinary public health-related issues for students.

Lena Vogt is a doctoral student and coordinator of the QuerVet-Project, Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Biostatistics of the Freie Universität Berlin. Email: . Her research includes implementing blended learning modules in interdisciplinary lectures with a focus on clinical virtual patients and investigating student acceptance of virtual patients in a blended learning setting.

Claudia Hautzinger is a Media Educator and was Project Coordinator of the QuerVet-Project at CeDiS – Center of Digital Systems of the Freie Universität Berlin. Email: . She has been focusing on e-learning projects and blended learning concepts for more than 15 years in different organizations, such as private companies, universities, and hospitals.

Dr. Sebastian Haase, PhD, is a researcher in didactics of physics and digital education research. While developing and implementing the learning and authoring platform tet.folio, he has collaborated on many interdisciplinary projects. Since 2018, he has worked in School Development Research at the Freie Universität Berlin. Email: .

Prof. Marcus Fulde, PhD, is Deputy Managing Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Epizootics and professor of Veterinary Infection Biology. His focus is on host-pathogen interactions of zoonotic bacteria and infection immunology. Email: .

Prof. Dr. Christa Thöne-Reineke is Managing Director of the Institute of Animal Welfare, Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science of the Freie Universität Berlin. Email . Her expertise is in implementing the 3Rs in science and education. One of her main areas of interest is the implementation of alternative teaching programs from secondary education to post-graduate education to not only replace, but to also promote the educated use of animals in education as a means of applied animal welfare.

Dr. Mechthild Wiegard is a post-doctoral researcher and Lecturer at the Institute of Animal Welfare, Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science of the Freie Universität Berlin. Email: . Her research focus is on the development and implementation of alternative teaching tools and the refinement of animal use in education, as well as scientific assessment of well-being and stress in animals.

Prof. Dr. Marcus Doherr, PhD, Dipl. ECVPH, is Managing Director of the Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Freie Universität Berlin. Email: . His expertise is in planning and analyzing population-based studies including questionnaire designs; he has a strong interest in improving the quality of teaching in veterinary medicine.

https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme-2020-0094
Published Online: May 19, 2021



Abstract

Online-based processing of case reports is often used and well accepted in veterinary medical education. However, lecturers usually develop cases from their own point of view, without input from students. In order to give students the chance to create online cases for students, an elective course, “Creative Workshop Case Creation”, was held three times between 2017 and 2019 at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin. During this course, students created cases based on animal welfare and epizootics issues through a problem-based blended learning approach. In this approach, students worked on an assigned veterinary public health problem and actively solved it in small groups in class and then used the issue as the basis to create cases for their fellow students. The cases were implemented in interdisciplinary lectures, which are mandatory for every student in semesters six to eight. After taking these classes, fellow students evaluated one of these cases, specifically, on animal welfare and another one on epizootics. Evaluations showed these cases were received well. Moreover, we received excellent feedback from students participating in the elective course and working with a proactive and motivated group of six students throughout the course was a very productive experience. The course made it possible to create cases that are more accurately tailored to the needs of students. The students’ good ideas and preparatory work also saved time in the preparation of cases for lecturers.

Key words: problem-based learning, blended learning, case-based learning, Veterinary Public Health education, veterinary learning