Interview with Dan Jeffries, Head of Digital Learning
It can feel risky taking online veterinary training. How do you know it’s high quality? In this article, you can hear from Dan Jeffries, our Head of Digital Learning, and learn more about how Improve Veterinary Education adapts to diverse learning styles and overcomes digital challenges.
How do Improve Veterinary Education’s online veterinary training courses cater to diverse learning styles?
When producing online lessons, it’s important to consider the variety of learning styles that our delegates will have. Knowing this, we actively aim to produce content that appeals to those who learn from seeing, from reading, from listening and from doing. With our recent Small Animal Medicine and Surgery refresh, this includes video introductions (with text versions for those who prefer to read), interactive lessons with a range of visual and auditory content, knowledge checks to assess what’s been learned and case studies developed in a new interactive format to authentically contextualise what’s been learned.
How does Improve Veterinary Education incorporate veterinarians’ feedback to improve its digital learning platforms?
We’re always listening to feedback and implementing suggestions and comments whenever possible. This includes learning experience (i.e. our learning platform, activities, engagement) and also the content itself. Delegates have numerous ways to leave feedback, either through module-specific questionnaires or via their dedicated programme forum.
How does Improve Veterinary Education address challenges like internet issues, device compatibility, and language barriers in digital learning?
Access can often be a challenge when it comes to poor internet connections and device compatibility. We aim to ensure all of our content for our online veterinary training is both accessible and responsive. This includes embedding videos within lessons via a dedicated video hosting platform, ensuring that – even with low connection speeds – content can always be viewed. We also test that our lessons are responsive to all devices and have technical support on standby, just in case.
Do you have any plans to help veterinarians develop digital literacy skills?
Vets and Nurses can take a range of additional short courses in our ‘Study Skills’ programme. These include topics such as ‘How to Reflect’, ‘Maths Skills Reminders’ and ‘Introduction to Scientific Writing’. We recognise there is scope to further develop digital literacy skills.
What is the future role of digital learning in veterinary professional development, and how will Improve Veterinary Education continue to lead in this area?
Digital learning has advanced greatly in the past 10 years, but many see ‘online learning’ as simply a space to access resources or – if lucky – engage in a discussion board. At Improve Veterinary Education we have really pushed the online learning experience to be engaging, contemporary and stimulating, both in how content is presented and the learning activities surrounding this. The immediate future will see us embracing new technology even more, particularly in the realms of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). We believe that vets and nurses would hugely benefit from accessing a library of experiences that complement their programme syllabus to either develop new skills or practice existing ones. Watch this space!
If you found this article interesting, you might want to learn more about learning styles and why they matter when choosing your veterinary CPD. You can also find out more about our interactive online learning experience for vets or read more about the advantages of online veterinary CPD.
