Pitfalls and opportunities of teaching veterinary parasitology within an integrated curriculum

Novel Board Game versus Active Case-Based Discussion to Teach Final-Year Veterinary Students the Diagnostic Approach to Clinical Cases

Traditional lectures, where students listen passively, often do not reflect the complexity of real-life decision-making situations. Furthermore, modern students are using online devices for daily activities, and this has a challenging side effect for educators, as many people these days can only maintain their focus if topics are discussed in concise and engaging ways. For these reasons, there is growing interest in the use of games for educational purposes. The aim of this study was to introduce a board game based on the Clue game for final-year veterinary students during their practical activity in large animal medicine. This type of learning process was compared with a classical case-based discussion and evaluated via a survey delivered to the students to both test their acquired knowledge and obtain their evaluation of the activity. A total of 49 students were enrolled in this study. While the board game was evaluated significatively better than the traditional class, no statistically significant differences were observed for the answers given to questions assessing their veterinary skills. The proposed game requires few resources other than a case-based visual materials and analyses from clinical patients, a board, two dice, and some imagination to create cases at the appropriate level for students' knowledge. We conclude that this board game-based activity represents innovative techniques to teach clinical approaches in an interactive way with the same utility as a traditional class but is more enjoyable for the students.

Development of Surgical Competence in Veterinary Students Using a Flipped Classroom Approach

Clinical skills laboratory (CSL) training was recently introduced in the renewed veterinary curriculum at Ghent University, using models and simulators for teaching practical skills. However, time in the CSL is restricted due to the large number of students combined with limited availability of personnel. Therefore, a flipped classroom (FC) model was introduced to maximize learning experiences. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the effect of flipped classroom CSL training on students' self-efficacy and practical surgical skills. Flipped classroom CSL training was implemented for the third-year pre-clinical students (n = 196) in the 6-year veterinary medicine program. Prior to CSL sessions, students studied online 'learning paths,' including text, pictures, videos of the skills, links to background information, a forum, and a compulsory pre-class quiz. A pre- and post-test were administered before and after flipped classroom CSL training. The tests consisted of a self-efficacy scale consisting of 20 items and an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) test of surgical skills performance. Flipped classroom CSL training resulted in significantly higher self-efficacy (score/100, pre-test 55 ± 14 vs. post-test 83 ± 8, p< .001) and surgical skills performance (score/20, pre-test 5 ± 3 vs. post-test 17 ± 3, p< .001). In conclusion, this study demonstrated the feasibility and value of implementing a flipped classroom approach in combination with CSL training.