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Development and Evaluation of an Online Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) Package to Promote Small-Animal Welfare

	ABSTRACT

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TIME LINE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL... EVALUATION METHODOLOGY RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION REFERENCES

 
Rationale for the study – The aims of the study, conducted as a student research project in the 2004–5 session, were to develop an interactive, online computer-aided learning (CAL) package on the topic of small-animal husbandry; to validate the resource as a suitable lecture replacement for first-year veterinary students; and to raise awareness of current guidelines and legislation relating to small-animal housing among local catteries and kennels and in the wider community.

Methodology – Quantitative feedback was collected from student and teaching staff using paper-based questionnaires. Qualitative feedback was gathered from open questionnaire responses and through focus-group discussions with students. Student examination marks were compared for 2004 and 2005, allowing a comparison of student performance before and after the replacement of the traditional lecture with the CAL package. Ethical approval for the study was granted by the faculty's Ethics Committee.

Results and conclusions – The CAL package on small-animal housing was well received by teaching staff and students; student performance in examinations improved after the introduction of the CAL program, suggesting that it provides a suitable alternative to didactic teaching. The creation and distribution of the CAL package on CD-ROM and its availability via the Internet are intended to contribute to small-animal welfare education in local catteries and kennels and further afield. The package sets a precedent for the development of more Internet-based, student-authored CAL packages in the future, providing additional resources for independent learning.

Key Words: computer-aided learning • CAL • animal welfare • community education

	INTRODUCTION

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TIME LINE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL... EVALUATION METHODOLOGY RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION REFERENCES

 
Making animal welfare a priority and ensuring the humane treatment of animals is an essential attribute of the professional veterinarian, as highlighted by the 10 guiding principles within the RCVS Guide to Professional Conduct 2006.¹

Knowledge of methods to promote small-animal welfare through good housing facilities that promote the "five freedoms"—freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury, or disease; freedom to express normal behavior; and freedom from fear and distress—underlies part of this requirement.²

Traditionally, at the University of Glasgow, first-year veterinary students attended a single one-hour didactic lecture on small-animal housing within the Animal Husbandry course. This lecture covered the housing of cats and dogs in boarding catteries and kennels, hospitals, and quarantine facilities. Students were also provided with written notes outlining the basic housing requirements and were directed to further reading. The main learning objectives were for students to have a full understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of various designs of catteries and kennels (including features such as lighting and ventilation) and how these relate to ensuring that the "five freedoms" are addressed, as well as to develop an awareness of the requirements for different types of housing.

Computer-aided learning (CAL) represents an alternative, independent method of instruction; CAL has been available to students within the faculty since 1994, primed by the work of the Computer-aided Learning In Veterinary Education (CLIVE) consortium.³ A previous evaluation study at Glasgow demonstrated that CAL is a suitable replacement for didactic lectures on the subject of diagnostic imaging.⁴

To create an alternative to the traditional didactic lecture described above, an interactive CAL package on small-animal housing was created during summer 2004 and refined throughout the 2004-5 academic session, with evaluation extending into the following academic session.

	AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TIME LINE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL... EVALUATION METHODOLOGY RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION REFERENCES

 
The CAL package was developed as a summer student project by author Denwood at the end of his third year of study, supervised by authors Dale and Yam. The project contributed to the student's extramural studies requirement—a mandatory component of the undergraduate veterinary course—with an educational research and development focus.

The project required the student to

• visit local kennels and catteries (within five miles of the faculty) to gather information, images, and video sequences to expand the library of audiovisual resources on this subject
  
• create an alternative resource to teach first-year students about the basic components of small-animal housing, to present the subject matter in a more interactive and engaging way than the traditional didactic lecture
  
• provide flexible access to current information for kennel assistants and veterinary nurses
  
• educate staff at local catteries and kennels about current guidelines and legislation by providing them with a copy of the finished resource on CD-ROM
  
• make the resource freely available on the Internet to the wider community to promote education on small-animal welfare
  
• carry out a summative evaluation of the resource as a lecture replacement for veterinary students
  

	TIME LINE

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TIME LINE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL... EVALUATION METHODOLOGY RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION REFERENCES

 
The CAL package was planned, developed, and evaluated over a two-year period, through the following stages:

• Preliminary needs analysis (July 2004): questionnaire to on-site undergraduates asking about their experiences of the didactic lecture on small-animal housing and attitudes to replacement of lecture with CAL
  
• Early formative assessment (August 2004): questionnaire to on-site clinical scholars (recent graduates), kennel assistants, veterinary nurses and nursing students, and veterinary students to gather initial feedback on the "look and feel" of the CAL interface at an early stage of development
  
• Formative evaluation (January/February 2005): questionnaire on the complete first module to all first-year veterinary students
  
• Summative evaluation (January/February 2006): questionnaire on the three complete modules to all first-year veterinary students
  
• Summative evaluation (July 2006): questionnaire on all three modules to veterinary teaching staff with expert knowledge of animal housing
  

	DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL PACKAGE

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TIME LINE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL... EVALUATION METHODOLOGY RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION REFERENCES

 
Preliminary Needs Analysis
In July 2004, prior to development of the CAL package, a questionnaire was circulated by e-mail to students in years 2 to 5 of the BVMS course to gauge students’ opinions on the lecture they had attended in first year on the subject of small-animal housing; to gather suggestions on how the CAL package should be designed; and to assess students’ views on CAL as a lecture replacement in general. It has been argued that questionnaires can be used to gather large amounts of information, at a relatively low cost, in a short time.⁵ In this case, only 24 of the 400 second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-year students responded (6%), because the survey was conducted out of term and via e-mail. It must also be acknowledged that students’ feedback was retrospective. In terms of a preliminary needs analysis, however, the resulting data provided a useful starting point for development. Results are shown in Table 1.

• well illustrated with numerous photographs to maintain user interest and aid memory retention
  
• highly interactive
  
• kept concise, excluding unnecessary detail
  

In addition, the following features were requested:

• optional links to more detailed information
  
• navigable content index
  
• printable/searchable version of the content
  
• optional quiz
  

A CAL package was subsequently developed that included the following sections:

1. General principles of small-animal housing
   
2. Boarding catteries and kennels
   
3. Specialist small-animal housing (quarantine and hospital kennels)
   

Increasing use has been made of the internet to support veterinary education since the 1990s.⁶ The Internet makes learning more widely accessible;⁷ it also offers the potential for Web-enabled animation, created using tools such as Macromedia Flash,^a which has been used, for example, to promote learning of human anatomy.^8,9 The same tool was used to design the small-animal housing CAL, to facilitate animation and interaction. One of the central animations was a cartoon dog named Spike, who acted as the student's guide through the material, offering context-sensitive help. An integrated quiz option could be turned on or off, allowing students to review their progress at regular intervals. A correct answer resulted in the cartoon dog receiving a bone as reward. The three sections (general principles, boarding catteries and kennels, and specialist animal housing) were color-coded to help orient the student.^b

Early Formative Assessment
At an early stage of development, in August 2004, a formative questionnaire was circulated by hand to teaching staff and students on campus (selected using convenience sampling), asking them to review the "look and feel" of the prototype CAL. As this took place during vacation time, the number of participants was small: two clinical scholars (recently graduated veterinary surgeons), two kennel assistants, two veterinary nurses, five veterinary nursing students, and three veterinary students. Participants were also asked to comment on features they liked, disliked, or would like added.

As Table 2 shows, responses to all questions were favorable. Several suggestions were made for refinement of the package, such as including more references to detailed information, slightly more difficult quiz questions, rollover explanations of images, and more animations.

	EVALUATION METHODOLOGY

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TIME LINE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL... EVALUATION METHODOLOGY RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION REFERENCES

 
Formative Evaluation Questionnaire
In January/February 2005, after the development of the first module, student opinion was sought via a questionnaire containing eight Likert-scale items and a number of open-ended questions. The questions asked are shown in Table 3.

Summative Evaluation Questionnaire
In January/February 2006, once all three modules were complete, the subsequent cohort of first-year students was asked to use the CAL package, again in a timetabled, unsupervised class. Students were assigned to one of two drop-in sessions at the Faculty's Computer Centre, where they were expected to work through the CAL package at their own pace.

The questionnaire, like the CAL package, had been refined—in particular, related items were grouped under appropriate themes to facilitate participant engagement with the questionnaire, a policy advocated by Verma and Mallick.¹⁰

The questionnaire included nine statements associated with a five-point Likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree," a higher rating representing a more positive response. The statements are listed in Table 4. Students were also encouraged to rate each module on a scale ranging from "very poor" to "very good." For each item, a value of 3 represented a neutral response. A space for qualitative comments about each questionnaire item was also available, and students were invited to provide additional comments about the resource in general.

Focus Groups
Discussion with several students about the CAL package was facilitated through broader discussions, within two of five focus groups, on the application of educational methods and technologies in the veterinary undergraduate curriculum as part of author Dale's contiguous research studies.

Analysis of Examination Results
The third-year class examinations held in March 2004 and March 2005 included questions on the topic of small-animal housing, allowing for a comparison of student performance before and after the introduction of CAL as a lecture replacement. Individual student marks were obtained for these examination questions, and an independent samples t-test was carried out to compare performance between the two separate student cohorts (students sitting the March 2004 examination had been lectured to, while students sitting the March 2005 examination had received the CAL package). The 2005 examination question was based on the content of Module 1, as the other two modules were still in development. The results from the 2006 examination were not included in the analysis, as the examination format had changed from essay questions to multiple-choice questions, none of which were on the subject of small-animal housing.

	RESULTS

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TIME LINE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL... EVALUATION METHODOLOGY RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION REFERENCES

 
Formative Evaluation Questionnaire
Fifty-five forms were returned from the class of 113 students in the 2004-5 session (48.7%). The results, shown in Table 3, indicate that the first module was well received by students.

Summative Evaluation Questionnaire
Fifty-one forms were returned from the class of 117 first-year students in the 2005-6 session (43.6%), and 12 forms were collected from members of teaching staff with expert knowledge of animal housing requirements.

Summative results are reported in Table 4. They indicate that all three modules were well received by staff and students and that staff responses were closely aligned with those of the students.

Focus Groups
Third-year students cited CAL as an appropriate medium through which to teach the principles of small-animal housing:

It was targeting a subject area that doesn't need to be taught in lectures.

Yes, the subject lends itself better than say, physiology. (Dialogue among third-year students about CAL)

This sentiment was also expressed by first-year students in a separate focus-group discussion:

I don't think it's a topic that really needs a lecture or there's anything that needs explained ... Knowing how big a kennel and stuff has to be, there's no need for a lecture on that.

I don't think lectures should be eliminated from Animal Husbandry though.

I wouldn't say that either, but the little quizzes in CAL are really useful. (Dialogue among first-year students about CAL)

These statements also served to highlight the importance of self-assessment to students, as well as their reluctance to see lectures replaced by CAL in general.

The third-year students were also asked whether the fact that the CAL package was student authored made a difference:

Probably. Because he's done it. He's been through what it was like before. He could see it from a different viewpoint.

Analysis of Examination Results
The mean value of the 2004 examination scores was 19.4 of a possible 33, while that for 2005 was 21.4/33. At p = 0.0005, this difference is statistically significant, suggesting that the students who learned from the CAL package performed better than the previous cohort, who had been lectured to.

	DISCUSSION

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TIME LINE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL... EVALUATION METHODOLOGY RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION REFERENCES

 
CAL as a Lecture Replacement
The preliminary needs analysis indicated that students did not consider the traditional lecture on the topic of small-animal housing to have been particularly helpful or interesting, although it did fulfill the learning objectives described in the introduction to this article. The respondents were supportive of the idea of replacing the lecture with CAL, particularly if the learning package were made available online.

The subsequent formative evaluations indicated that the CAL package

• was very easy to use
  
• contained an appropriate amount of well presented information
  
• was interesting and fun to use
  

In addition,

• the integrated quiz and animations were thought to promote student learning, and
  
• the majority of students were satisfied with the package as a lecture replacement.
  

The findings from the summative evaluation reiterate previous positive findings on the layout and design of the package and its content. The overall consensus on the ability of CAL to replace lectures was neutral, however, with some respondents for and others against lecture replacement, as indicated by the inter-quartile range in ratings. This range of opinion is further demonstrated by responses to open-ended questionnaire items:

Would be a good support rather than replacement. (Student)

Certain more difficult classes may not be well suited as CAL programs in place of lectures, but maybe to augment lectures. (Student)

Doing CAL package with lecturer in room to explain/amplify would work. (Lecturer)

Students and staff also felt that replacing lectures with CAL was appropriate only for certain subjects:

Depends on the content of the lecture. (Student)

CAL has been shown to be an effective alternative to lectures in human physiology¹¹ and orthodontics,¹² although its use does need to be fully integrated into the curriculum to ensure uptake by students.¹³ Reluctance on the part of students to part with the traditional lecture has been cited in relation to veterinary pathology¹⁴ and clinical sonography; it has been suggested that students are caught between different learning and teaching paradigms.¹⁵

In terms of finding evidence that students’ learning is supported equally well by CAL and by lectures, the significant increase in students’ examination scores in this study is encouraging. However, the problem with comparing two educational methods using examination marks is that the comparison does not take into account either the revision and further study carried out by the student between the teaching treatment and the examination¹⁶ or any inequity in the level of difficulty of questions between the two years.

One of the benefits of face-to-face teaching is the ability to ask questions to check understanding. Active participation in large-group teaching activities can be promoted through the use of questions with feedback.¹⁷ The focus-group comment made by a first-year student would suggest that CAL quizzes serve the same function in CAL as a lecture replacement.

The triangulated evidence from the questionnaires, focus groups, and examination results suggests that CAL is an acceptable replacement for a lecture on this particular topic.

Promotion of Small-Animal Welfare
Perhaps the most novel aspect of the present study is the dissemination of the information via the Internet in an effort to promote small-animal welfare. At the time of writing, we are aware of the package having been integrated into the veterinary undergraduate curriculum at the University of Liverpool¹⁸ and in national diploma courses in animal care,¹⁹ where it has been well received. Copies of the package on CD-ROM have been sent to local catteries and kennels, and it is hoped that the online version will be used by cattery and kennel owners further afield. We have yet to receive feedback from cattery and kennel owners; however, in an effort to make the information more accessible (to pet owners as well as to cattery and kennel staff), we have provided links to it from the Faculty's website and added appropriate metadata to allow the site to be found easily by search engines.

Student-Authored CAL
Student-authored CAL, generated in a collaborative learning context, was shown to be successful in generating a library of resources for teaching veterinary anatomy at the University of Bristol.²⁰ University of Glasgow, there had been one previous instance of student-authored CAL. In the current study, the student brought to the project not only computing expertise, enthusiasm, and motivation but, perhaps most importantly, his perspective as a fellow undergraduate student who had very recently had to assimilate information about small-animal housing within his overall understanding of veterinary medicine. As illustrated by one of the comments made in the third-year student focus group, this gave him a unique viewpoint, separate from those of the academic clinician and educational technologist, from which to structure the package to promote student learning. In light of the apparent success of this project, a similar summer student project was set up in 2005.

	CONCLUSION

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TIME LINE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL... EVALUATION METHODOLOGY RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION REFERENCES

 
The CAL package serves as an acceptable alternative to undergraduate lectures on the subject of small-animal housing. It also serves as an online source of information for cattery and kennel owners and pet owners, with the goal of promoting small-animal welfare on a larger scale. The project demonstrates the benefits of student authoring of CAL.

	ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 
We are grateful to the staff of the local catteries and kennels, whose help was invaluable in collecting visual resources for the CAL package, and to animal owners for giving their consent for their pets to be photographed for inclusion in package. We also thank Ms. Joanne Grant for her graphic-design input. We are grateful to Hill's Pet Nutrition Ltd., who provided financial support towards remuneration for the student author.

	Footnotes

 
AUTHOR INFORMATION

Matthew Denwood, BVMS, MRCVS, is currently undertaking a PhD in the Comparative Epidemiology and Informatics Group, Institute of Comparative Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Bearsden Road, Glasgow G61 1QH Scotland. He conducted this work as an undergraduate student at the Faculty. E-mail: m.denwood{at}vet.gla.ac.uk.

Vicki H. M. Dale, BSc (Hons), MSc, FHEA, is a Lecturer in Veterinary Education at the Lifelong Independent Veterinary Education (LIVE) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Herts. AL9 7TA UK. E-mail: vdale{at}rvc.ac.uk. Her current research interests include the advancement of learning theory in veterinary education, in the wider context of work-based learning. This work was carried out when she was an Educational Technologist at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow.

Philippa Yam, BSc (Hons), BVM&S, CertSAM, PhD, MRCVS, is Hill's Senior Lecturer in Gastroenterology in the Division of Companion Animal Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G61 1QH UK. E-mail: p.yam{at}vet.gla.ac.uk.

Notes

^a Adobe Systems Inc., San Jose, CA 95110-2704 <http://www.adobe.com/>.

^b The CAL package and associated learning objectives are freely available online at <http://www.gla.ac.uk/faculties/vet/teaching/SAhusbandry/>.

	REFERENCES

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES TIME LINE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAL... EVALUATION METHODOLOGY RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION REFERENCES

 

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