VetEd.Net – What is Possible Now?

Teachers’ perspective is described in the Veterinary Education Consortium example, so in this case study, we will be focused on benefits students can gain from this framework.

 Student Jessica. Our role model will be student Jessica M. Jessica’s log-in data to access her school Moodle site are:
 * URL: http://illinois.veted.net/
 * Username: Jessica
 * Password: ---

This account is active, so you can check everything described in this case study if you use Jessica’s log-in data.

Environment. Eight Moodle sites, one Community Hub and one Mahara site are created as sub-domains of the veted.net domain name. In each Moodle site example courses are created. To highlight the potential we have, a majority of created example courses have the same title and description as real online courses created  by: Veterinary School University of Illinois, Glasgow Veterinary Faculty, Centre for Veterinary Education (cve.edu.au), VetScholar (NZVA).

Sites. Created sites are: Figure 16. Community Hub Search Options
 * 1) Community Hub
 * 2) http://hub.veted.net/
 * 3) Mahara ePortfolio site:
 * 4) http://myeportfolio.veted.net/
 * 5) Moodle sites:
 * 6) http://illinois.veted.net/
 * 7) http://my.veted.net/
 * 8) http://glasgow.veted.net/
 * 9) http://pre-vet.veted.net/
 * 10) http://vetscholar.veted.net/
 * 11) http://cve.veted.net/
 * 12) http://avma.veted.net/
 * 13) http://aaha.veted.net/

When Jessica logs into http://illinois.veted.net/ at her school site, she  has access to two courses she is attending (Parasitology and Pain Management) and two collaborative groups (International Veterinary Students’ Association Collaborative Space and Veterinary Careers). However, that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Veterinary Community Hub. Jessica often goes to http://hub.veted.net/ to check if there are any interesting courses or collaborative groups. Because Jessica will do a two-month internship at the veterinary school in Glasgow, she recently joined the IVSA UK collaborative space she found through the Community Hub.

Colleagues from IVSA UK, have already arranged accommodations for Jessica.

Roaming. Users can roam between illinois.veted.net and other sites in the network. All Jessica has to do to enter any of network servers is to log into illinois.veted.net and then click a link in the Network servers menu (see the picture in the right column).

While she is at glasgow.veted.net, it is noted in the top right corner:
 * You are logged in as Jessica M. from Illinois VetEd Network (Logout)

The Network servers menu

Guest Access. Each course and each collaborative group at glasgow.veted.net has different access rules. Some of them are available just for their local students, some for collaborative groups (such as IVSA UK, which is open to all logged-in users), and some courses have available guest access. Guest access means that logged-in users can enter a course (or part of course) without being required to enroll and without being able to post anything.

Networking and promoting. A few departments at glasgow.veted.net made their courses available to guests. They concluded that it is an affordable and safe way to promote their departments and their School, attract ambitious partners and students while helping a broader population of students.

Support for open educational resources. Last year glasgow.veted.net  received a grant for development of open educational resources. All courses with open guest access received part of that funding.

Guest Jessica. Jessica’s first interaction with glasgow.veted.net was while she was searching for data about tropical parasites. Through the community hub, she found a parasitological course with guest access at glasgow.veted.net.

ePortfolio. Jessica started using a guest access to the course and she liked their research and the way the information is taught. She contacted the head professor, Dr. Elizabeth.

Receiving a phone call or e-mail from a student from a foreign country was not as easy for Dr. Elizabeth to handle during the pre-networked era. Now, it’s different. As soon as she received Jessica’s e-mail, Dr. Elizabeth made two clicks and in less than 7 seconds Jessica’s ePortofolio was on her screen.

Wow, the ePortfolio shows that student Jessica is skilled and ambitious. Her undergraduate work, sports activities, work in the International Veterinary Students’ Association, extracurricular courses, and undergraduate research she made about parasite’s biology are quite impressive. Dr. Elizabeth concluded that an internship at glasgow.veted.net would be a nice addition to Jessica’s ePortfolio.

Paid-for courses, evaluation and negotiation. Jessica participated in an online paid course about companion animals’ parasites in Australia and one course about tropical parasites in the South African Republic. Because Australia and South Africa are new members of the Network, those courses are not accredited by  Illinois.VetEd.Net or Glasgow.VetEd.Net. The credit transfer agreement is still in process.

Power of ePortfolio. All Jessica’s results, the best forum posts she made and her pictures of parasites are available in her portfolio. Jessica made just a few clicks to export that data to her portfolio, and now she can easily present that data to whomever she wishes. Before Jessica contacted Dr. Elizabeth, she made her portfolio visible to Dr. Elizabeth. Dr. Elizabeth appreciated that. She concluded: ‘A few posts from the Parasitology online course Jessica had in South African describes Jessica’s knowledge, skills and attitudes – probably better than officially recognized grades. Sure, it would be better if we can have both. . . but that ePortfolio is an amazing thing. ‘

Power of collaboration. Animal welfare is Jessica’s passion. Last year she attended an online course in animal welfare offered at MSU. She thought that was a great course, but ‘animal welfare deserves much more than one course.’ That is why she was happy when she heard that MSU, llinois.veted.net, my.veted.net, Glasgow.veted.net (four veterinary schools) and avma.veted.net and aaha.veted.net (two nonprofit veterinary organizations) are planning to organize a group of animal welfare courses. Their goal is to provide high-quality, science-based courses developed by international welfare experts and available to veterinary students and practicing veterinarians regardless of geographic location. “Wow,” she said. It is not just that we will have a group of world-known experts designing multiple animal welfare courses together, but they are also planning to build an ‘animal welfare learning community’. That means that faculty, veterinarians and veterinary students will be able to discuss, learn and teach about different aspects of animal welfare. And all that knowledge will be converted into newer, better, more dynamic courses in animal welfare.