Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are freely available online courses open to anyone who registers and typically are associated with thousands or hundreds of thousands of participants. Using an established online platform, the authors created and delivered a five-week MOOC aimed primarily at prospective veterinary students, but open to anyone with an interest in finding out more about the veterinary profession in general. 11,911 people signed up for the course, and of these, 8137 interacted in some way with the course and 1716 received a certificate of completion. The majority of participants (84 per cent) were female, and there was a wide age range (under 18 to over 65). Most participants were from North America or the UK. 65 per cent of those completing the entry survey were hoping or intending to work in the vet profession in the future, while 33 per cent were not. Qualitative data indicated that the course was helpful in aiding those undecided as to whether they wanted to be a veterinarian or not to decide one way or another whether they want to pursue veterinary medicine as a career. Furthermore, the course was seen as being a useful introduction to the veterinary profession even for those who had no intention of working in the field.
Assessment literacy is increasingly recognized as an important concept to consider when developing assessment strategies for courses and programs. Assessment literacy approaches support students in their understanding of assessment expectations and help them both understand and optimize their performance in assessment. In this teaching tip, a model for assessment literacy that builds on the well-known Miller’s Pyramid model for assessment in clinical disciplines is proposed and contextualized. The model progresses thinking from assessment methods themselves to consideration of the activities that need to be built into curricula to ensure that assessment literacy is addressed at each level of the pyramid. The teaching tip provides specific examples at each of the levels. Finally, the relevance of this work to overall curriculum design is emphasized.
This paper reports on research into teachers' perspectives on education to prepare students for working with 'wicked' problems (Rittel and Webber 1973). These problems are complex, lack clear boundaries, and attempts to solve them -generally by bringing together multiple stakeholders with contrasting viewpoints -often have unforeseen consequences. Examples include many of the most significant current global challenges. We conducted semistructured interviews with twenty teachers in higher education who focused on wicked problems, and a comparison group of 15 other teachers. We used the theoretical lenses 'ways of thinking and practising in the subject area ' (Anderson and Hounsell, 2007) and 'figured worlds' (Holland et al., 1998) to frame our perspectives on high quality learning in relation to wicked problems. Our findings elaborate four key aspects of learning for wicked problems.Implications for policy makers and institutions include the structural changes that would likely be required to support such teaching.
Sharon Boyd, Eoghan Clarkson and Brian Mather explain how the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies is using the latest 3D modelling techniques to help students develop their clinical skills
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