News

Professor Peter van Beukelen receives Royal Honours for contribution to veterinary education

On 29th April 2010, Peter van Beukelen, President of ViEW and Professor of Quality Improvement in Veterinary Education at Utrecht University, was awarded the Royal Honour of the rank of Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Peter was granted the award for his exceptional service in modernising and improving the quality of veterinary education. His achievements have provided an important contribution for both the professional community as well as society at large.

Professor Peter van Beukelen receiving the award from Mrs van Rooy

In the speech of Mrs. Yvonne van Rooy, Chair of the University Board, and in the dossier, the activities of ViEW were mentioned specifically. Peter stated “I experience the honour as a reward for all involved in veterinary education, especially my colleagues from ViEW.”

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€450k EU funding awarded for Network Of Veterinary ICt in Education (NOVICE)

Members of ViEW from the veterinary schools in Utrecht (lead site), Budapest, Bucharest, Hannover and London have been successful in obtaining funding for a collaborative project: the Network of Veterinary ICt in Education (NOVICE). €450,000 has been awarded under the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme to investigate the role of web 2.0 technologies (for example, wikis and blogs) in supporting informal, lifelong learning. 

Participants of the ICT educationalists workshop in Utrecht, January 2010

The project kicked off with a meeting of ICT educationalists in Utrecht in January 2010. A core group of 10 students and 10 practitioners from each participating country will initially be invited to take part in the cross-European, online community of practice.
More information about the project is available at www.noviceproject.eu.

Dr. Sarah Baillie wins 'Most Innovative Teacher of the Year' at the Times Higher Education Awards, 2009

Above: Dr. Baillie (right) with Ann Mroz, Editor of Times Higher Education

At the Times Higher Education (THE) awards on October 15th 2009, Dr. Sarah Baillie from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), London, won the ‘Most Innovative Teacher of the Year’ award for her work with haptic simulators. Universities across the UK had been invited to nominate their most innovative teachers, which resulted in over 80 entries. Six finalists were selected by a panel of judges and attended the awards dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel where Dr. Baillie was named as the winner.

The award recognises not just Dr. Baillie’s work but also the innovations that are taking place in veterinary education. Dr. Baillie said “I was very fortunate to join the RVC three years ago and become part of the visionary educational research and development work undertaken by LIVE” the RVC’s Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) led by Professor Stephen May. Dr. Baillie added that at a personal level “This award also represents 30 years of ‘education’ from my undergraduate days, when I was inspired by great teachers and role models, to my time in practice, where I was fortunate to have some exceptional clinicians to work with and learn from.”

The computer simulators Dr. Baillie develops use virtual reality (VR) and haptic technology to help veterinary students learn to perform internal examinations of cows and horses (the ‘Haptic Cow’ and ‘Haptic Horse’). Dr. Baillie notes “When teaching with the simulators it’s great to see the students really make progress and sometimes ‘get’ something for the first time.”

One of the RVC’s new developments, the Core Skills Trainer, uses haptic computer games to help students improve their dexterity and perceptual skills – all key when preparing for clinical work.

Watch highlights of the THE awards ceremony

Inauguration of Professor Susan Rhind, Professor of Veterinary Education

Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, 2nd June 2009

Professor Susan Rhind gave her inaugural lecture at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies on 2nd June 2009 to an audience of senior officers from the University of Edinburgh, colleagues from a number of the veterinary schools, and friends and family. Tracing her ancestry back to John Rhind, 1828-1892, who sculpted the famous statue of William Dick which previously graced the Summerhall Square, Professor Rhind presented her story, from her love of animals as a child growing up in the West of Scotland to becoming a leading international figure of veterinary educational research. She paid tribute to Hal Thompson, Irene McCandlish and Neil Gorman who inspired her to develop an interest in veterinary pathology and research as a student at the veterinary school in Glasgow. After graduating Prof. Rhind spent several years in general veterinary practice before focussing on pathology at the Dick Vet School, her work including post mortem analysis of the infamous sheep ‘Dolly’ who was cloned at the pioneering Roslin Institute. Her love of teaching led her to become the Director of the University of Edinburgh’s Veterinary Teaching Organisation, and in recent years she was awarded the Universities Chancellors award for teaching and became the UK’s first Professor of Veterinary Education in 2007.

In a lecture entitled “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie – Why change the future of veterinary education?”, she highlighted the enormity of the knowledge and skills required of veterinary surgeons in comparison to medics, due to the number of species involved and the range of procedures which veterinary professionals are expected to be competent at. She highlighted the important role of veterinary surgeons as ‘guardians of human health’ in the public health arena. Another reason for curriculum change included the apparent contrast between students as ‘digital natives’ and teachers as ‘digital immigrants’ (Prensky 2001), however cross-departmental educational research conducted for the LEAD project (Learner Experiences Across the Disciplines), led by Judy Hardy, indicated that this dualistic approach was an oversimplified concept, with students being admitted from a variety of backgrounds with a range of skills and expertise in technology use.

Prof. Rhind presented an overview of the new integrated outcome-based veterinary curriculum at Edinburgh which tried to meet these challenges, with clinical and professional skills running throughout the curriculum in parallel with animal health, welfare and food safety. She welcomed the development of a new teaching building which will facilitate more small-group teaching, and the clinical skills lab which is being developed with Dr Catriona Bell. In advocating a ‘blended learning’ approach (a combination of face to face and e-learning strategies), Prof. Rhind showcased examples within the Edinburgh Electronic Veterinary curriculum (EEVeC) such as the Virtual Farm put together by Kay Aitchison, the Virtual Clinic and a number of video podcasts.

Educational research projects that Prof. Rhind is leading at Edinburgh include e-learning, academic feedback, Web 2.0 technologies (including the collaborative WikiVet project), assessment of clinical competence, digital museums, stress in students and the profession (with Richard Mellanby) and admissions research. In discussing the methods used, she made reference to Geoff Norman’s point that the traditional model of randomised controlled trials is ‘educationally misguided’, and David Cook’s (2009) argument that e-learning research has failed to date because in comparing e-learning with other teaching methods in terms of student attitudes and examination performance has not ‘asked the right questions’. The LEAD final report by Hardy et al. (2009) ‘ICT and the student first year experience’ highlights the importance of ‘keeping student voices central’, and concludes that the term ‘e-learning’ does not mean much to students, who are not the ones pushing for increased technology use.

In closing, Prof. Rhind reiterated the importance of collaboration – across departments as well as institutions, nationally and internationally. She described the LIVE Centre of Excellence in ‘Lifelong and Independent Veterinary Education’, based at the Royal Veterinary College, as a successful model of a veterinary education research centre, and called for a similar setup to be maintained at the University of Edinburgh, with funding priorities including MSc and PhD students to carry on this important work.