Understanding the Quiet Student: Perspectives from Instructors and Students.

A significant proportion of students in a given course may choose not to participate verbally. Instructor concerns about these "quiet" students include lack of participation in social aspects of learning and difficulty in assessing student engagement and understanding. Instructors and students at a college of veterinary medicine completed anonymous surveys.

Instructor Development and Support at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine.

Health science schools are increasingly promoting teaching training among their faculty. Reported challenges for such programs revolve around lack of time and lack of support for faculty and other teaching staff to pursue such training. This is a description of the components of a teaching training program that is available for all instructional faculty and staff at a veterinary college.

Value of Study Skills Training for Incoming Veterinary Students.

Students may struggle as they enter the veterinary curriculum because they have historically been successful academically and so may fail to recognize the necessary changes in study skills required to manage the increased content and rigor of veterinary training. This manuscript describes processes used by one school to help students better understand study strategies and to address students' academic and personal concerns that may impact their achievement.

Teaching Tips as a Component of an Instructor Development Program in Veterinary Medicine.

Teaching tips are provided as one aspect of an instructor development program. A survey of the college demonstrated great appreciation for this tool because of its ease of access, ability of instructors to review information in their own time, and the usefulness of the topics presented. Teaching tips are easily produced and archived.

Pre- and Post-Course Self-Assessments to Promote Recognition of Learning in Veterinary Students.

Students benefit from recognition of their achievements as learners. A simple tool to help students reflect on their own learning is the use of pre- and post-course self-assessments based on authentic veterinary interactions. The use of this tool in three courses over 2 years consistently demonstrated an increase in the confidence of the students in their ability to use the course content in realistic settings.

Correlation of Chronotype (Lark versus Night Owl Status) with Mind-Set and Effect of Chronotype on Examination Performance in Veterinary School.

Chronotype describes what time of day people are most productive, with the specific terminology of (productive early in the day) and (productive late in the day). Society, including education, schedules work at times that generally favor larks. The goals of this study were to (a) define our student population regarding mind-set and chronotype, (b) examine the relationship between chronotype and mind-set score, and (c) examine the relationship between lark score and examination score with examinations offered at varying times of day.

Pilot Study Evaluating the Use of Typodonts (Dental Models) for Teaching Veterinary Dentistry as Part of the Core Veterinary Curriculum.

Periodontal disease is one the most common disease pathologies in small animal medicine, yet new graduates report they feel unprepared to perform dentistry in general practice. Novel methodologies to close the knowledge gap in veterinary dentistry need to be identified. Typodonts (dental models) are commonly used in human dental schools to teach basic principles prior to practice on clinical patients and have been shown to be an effective teaching tool.

Measuring Productivity and Impact of Veterinary Education-Related Research at the Institutional and Individual Levels Using the -Index.

The natural progression of observation through inquiry to scholarship that is common to scientists is not well demonstrated among veterinary educators. One possible institutional barrier to promotion of education-related research among faculty is lack of a mechanism to demonstrate productivity and impact of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and hypothesis-driven research related to education. The -index is one measure of research productivity.

Monitoring the Curriculum through the Student Perspective.

Student input was deliberately included as part of the curriculum implementation and assessment plan at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. The new curriculum included design features to encourage deeper learning such as a spiral curriculum with cross-course integration, increased open time, and more active learning. Student well-being was seen as a simultaneous need.

Population Control in Small Animals.

Optimal age for ovariohysterectomy or castration has not been defined in the scientific literature. Bitches and queens are significantly less likely to develop mammary neoplasia, which has a high incidence and potentially high morbidity and mortality, if spayed when young. Tom cats exhibit undesirable behaviors that preclude them being good pets and should be castrated young.

Use of Extra-Credit Questions in a Comparative Theriogenology Course.

There is little information in the literature about extra credit in undergraduate coursework and even less about professional schools, including colleges of veterinary medicine. For the present study, syllabi at one veterinary school were reviewed to determine availability of extra credit. Extra credit was offered in 13.

Curriculum Review and Revision at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine.

Curriculum review is an essential part of ongoing curriculum development, and is a mandate of the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education (AVMA COE), the accrediting body of all North American schools and colleges of veterinary medicine. This article describes the steps in curriculum review undertaken by the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (UMN CVM) in response to this mandate from the COE and to a recommendation from a recent collegiate review that was part of a larger university-level strategic planning effort. The challenges of reviewing and revising the curriculum within a short time frame were met by appointing a dedicated curriculum review board and by engaging students and faculty groups, both as focus groups and as specific faculty work sections within disciplines.

Veterinary Curricula Today: Curricular Management and Renewal at AAVMC Member Institutions.

Renewing a veterinary curriculum is challenging work and its impact is difficult to measure. Academic leaders are charged with regular review and updating of their curricula, but have few resources available to guide their efforts. Due to the paucity of published veterinary reports, most turn to colleagues at other veterinary schools for insider advice, while a few undertake the task of adapting information from the educational literature to suit the needs of the veterinary profession.

Assessing Communications Competencies through Reviews of Client Interactions and Comprehensive Rotation Assessment: A Comparison of Methods.

The primary purpose of this study was to compare two methods for assessing student communication skills: a labor-intensive review of video-recorded interactions and global communications assessment using a comprehensive rotation-assessment tool. Secondary goals of the study were to evaluate student strengths and weaknesses to inform the pre-clinical communications curriculum and to evaluate for consistency between types of reviewers. Video recordings of 43 student encounters with clients presenting their animals for wellness or diagnostic appointments to the primary care service at a veterinary teaching hospital were reviewed by one of three primary care clinicians, a social worker, and a clinical communications instructor, using a common rubric.

Pilot Study of Veterinary Student Mindset and Association with Academic Performance and Perceived Stress.

Individuals with a growth mindset believe that all failures are opportunities and that their baseline intelligence and talent can be used for continuous improvement. Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that baseline intelligence and talent cannot be developed. A growth mindset is associated with greater academic success and greater resilience in the face of failure or stress.

Use of Examination Wrappers to Direct Student Self-Assessment of Examination Preparation: A Pilot Study.

Metacognition is the act of thinking about one's own thought processes. There are long-term gains in learning among students who are trained to understand how the brain works and how they can control their own learning. Wrappers are short questionnaires provided at or near the time of completion of a lecture, assignment, or assessment to coach the student in thinking through the steps of metacognition (planning, monitoring, and adapting).

Closing the Loop: Using Evidence to Inform Refinements to an Admissions Process.

Substantive changes in our evaluation of applicants have been implemented in response to the findings of the various phases of outcomes assessment. This article will describe the changes that have been implemented as a result of analyzing the association of pre-veterinary academic, subjective, and behavioral-event interview scores with veterinary students' performance in the DVM program, including clinical competencies, and their performance on the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination. Pre-veterinary academic performance predicted academic performance in veterinary school.

Financial expectations of first-year veterinary students.

Objective: To assess student awareness of the financial costs of pursuing a veterinary education, to determine student expectations for financial returns of a veterinary career, and to identify associations between student debt and factors such as future career plans or personality type.

Design: Survey.

Sample: First-year veterinary students at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine.

Creation of a metric for faculty effort in teaching in the veterinary curriculum.

A teaching-effort metric was generated using information from health sciences literature and self-reported data from faculty members. This metric was used to verify faculty effort based on teaching assignments, to equalize teaching between faculty members within disciplines, and to help faculty members understand the ramifications of new teaching opportunities on their overall effort.

Effect of differing PowerPoint slide design on multiple-choice test scores for assessment of knowledge and retention in a theriogenology course.

Third-year veterinary students in a required theriogenology diagnostics course were allowed to self-select attendance at a lecture in either the evening or the next morning. One group was presented with PowerPoint slides in a traditional format (T group), and the other group was presented with PowerPoint slides in the assertion-evidence format (A-E group), which uses a single sentence and a highly relevant graphic on each slide to ensure attention is drawn to the most important points in the presentation. Students took a multiple-choice pre-test, attended lecture, and then completed a take-home assignment.

Pros, cons, and techniques of pediatric neutering.

Pediatric gonadectomy is most commonly performed by humane organizations as a means of population control. Benefits and detriments of gonadectomy are reviewed, with special attention to literature describing effects specific to age at gonadectomy. Techniques for pediatric anesthesia and surgery are reviewed.

Canine theriogenology for dog enthusiasts: teaching methodology and outcomes in a massive open online course (MOOC).

A massive open online course (MOOC) in canine theriogenology was offered for dog owners and breeders and for veterinary professionals as a partnership between the University of Minnesota and Coursera. The six-week course was composed of short video lectures, multiple-choice quizzes with instant feedback to assess understanding, weekly case studies with peer evaluation to promote integration of course materials, and discussion forums to promote participant interaction. Peak enrollment was 8,796 students.

Frequency of interactions between veterinarians and other professionals to guide interprofessional education.

The objective of this study was to determine the frequency with which veterinarians interact with individuals in other health professions and related fields of work. Four thousand members of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) were surveyed. Demographic information was collected, and participants were asked how frequently they interacted with members of various professions.

Use of Facebook as a teaching tool in a veterinary communications course.

First-year veterinary students enrolled in a Professional Development course were invited to join a Facebook group with the goal of having the instructor use that tool to promote student practice of client communication skills. All members of the class were surveyed to determine any difference in educational outcomes between those students who joined the Facebook group (FB) and those who did not (non-FB). Fifty-one students joined the Facebook group out of a class of 99, and 33 responded to the survey.