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Lecture recording is now common in many educational institutions, leading to discussion about how best to support student learning. In this mixed methods study, we used a survey ( n = 46 participants), think-aloud methodologies in observed study sessions ( n = 8 participants) and recording analytics ( n = 637 recordings) to characterize how veterinary students utilize recordings during their studies. Only 48% of survey respondents considered they were more likely to use recordings as exams approached, but 78% considered they used recordings more when the topic was difficult. In the observed study sessions, students characterized their use of recordings as helping them to control their learning environment, allowing them to pause and rewind challenging topics, and as a jumping off point for future study, allowing them to structure the seeking out of additional information. In a linear model describing the recording analytics, students who had entered higher education directly from high school were more likely to watch more of a lecture than graduate entry students. In addition, the most visited lectures were also the ones with more view time ( F(5, 631) = 129.5, R2 = 0.50, p < .001). Overall, this study suggests that veterinary students were selective about their use of recordings in their study strategies, often using them to make up for deficits in their knowledge and understanding, or to supplement their experience at veterinary school. We discuss the consequences and implications for student study skills support.

Following the pivot to online teaching as a result of COVID-19, discussion has turned to how the “new normal” in higher education will look, in light of rapid changes and technological upskilling that have taken place across the sector. Amongst this discussion, a longstanding debate as to whether higher education should abandon traditional face-to-face lectures has reignited, either because of uncertainty surrounding when large crowds can feasibly and reliably gather, or for pedagogical reasons, such as retaining the use of flipped classrooms or shorter chunks of pre-recorded material that have been developed during the pivot. In this paper, we set out our reflection on this issue based on the evidence available. We conclude that traditional on-campus lectures, and the recordings of those lectures have a place in higher education and the suggestion that they should be abandoned is as unhelpful as the suggestion that they should be the default mode of teaching. When lectures are deliberately chosen as the most appropriate method of teaching and when the same pedagogical care and attention is given as to other modes of delivery, they provide an effective, pragmatic solution, particularly for large classes. Our response to the pivot should not be to abandon lectures but to critically reflect on their purpose and potential.

This study explored the way in which detailed data about how time is spent on classroom activities, generated by the FILL+ tool (Framework for Interactive Learning in Lectures), can stimulate professional conversations about teaching practices and aid reflection for STEMM lecturers. The lecturers felt that personalised data provided an unbiased view of the lecture, overcoming the difficultly of relying on their memory alone. They indicated that this approach would help them to reflect on their teaching, particularly when the data was surprising, and many felt that it would encourage them to make changes to their teaching practice.

Much has been written about instructor attitudes towards lecture capture, particularly concerning political issues such as opt-out policies and the use of recordings by management. Additionally, the pedagogical concerns of lecturers have been extensively described and focus on the belief that recording lectures will impact on attendance and will reduce interactivity and active learning activities in lectures. However, little work has looked at the relationship between attitudes towards lecture capture and broader conceptions of learning and teaching. In this pre-registered study, we administered the Conceptions of Learning and Teaching scale and a novel lecture capture attitude scale to 159 higher education teachers. We found that appreciation of active learning predicted more positive attitudes towards lecture recordings as an educational support tool, whilst higher teacher-centred scores predicted greater concern about the negative educational impact of recordings. The effects observed were small; however, they are strong evidence against the view that it is instructors who value participatory and active learning that are opposed to lecture capture. Exploratory analyses also suggested that those who did not view recordings as an essential educational resource record fewer of their lectures, highlighting the real-world impact that attitudes can have, and further strengthening the need for staff to be provided with evidence-based guidance upon which to base their teaching practice. Data, analysis code, and the pre-registration are available athttps://osf.io/uzs3t/.

This article characterizes and evaluates the development of an accredited, in-house faculty-based teaching recognition scheme aimed at supporting clinicians and academics to achieve Advance HE Fellowship recognition. The scheme takes 6 to 24 months to complete and forms part of an institution-wide scheme. The evaluation covered 44 months collecting data on participation rates across the school and 21 semi-structured interviews across 16 staff participants. We describe the outcomes measured alongside key perceived benefits and challenges to support the implementation of similar schemes elsewhere. Across 130 academic staff, there was 61% engagement. In interviews, 11 participants characterized benefits in terms of changes to their teaching, such as adopting new strategies for differing class sizes, and highlighted the benefit of accessible and context-specific development opportunities designed specifically for STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine) practitioners and clinicians. Motivations for participating were mainly intrinsic (69%), with international professional recognition also featured (61%, n = 10). Of the 23 participants who withdrew, the largest subgroup (39%) withdrew because they had left the institution, and 35% withdrew because of a lack of time, which encompassed a range of issues. We outline recommendations for implementing similar schemes including protected time, accessible development opportunities, and support for mentors.

Lecture recording, as a form of technology enhanced learning, has been purported to support equality in Higher Education. The introduction of lecture recording is often controversial, with some lecturers having concerns as to how recordings may change teaching and learning. A commonly reported motivation for incorporating lecture recordings is supporting the needs of widening participation students, students who are otherwise under-represented in higher education. In this study, we used focus groups to explore the experiences of widening participation students in higher education as they navigated their university programmes. We held four focus groups in three Scottish universities, and discussed and developed findings alongside a stakeholder group. We then applied a social capital lens to the data to explore whether recordings can be used to overcome a lack of social capital in widening participation students. Our participants identified areas where they lacked social ‘credit’, such as a lack of peer parity among colleagues and experiences which could be described as microaggressions. Students discussed reasons why the ‘cost’ of asking questions in class was too high, and how recordings support them by allowing them to save on this perceived cost. However students also recognised the tension of a lack of trust between lecturers and students, which could be exacerbated by recordings. We found good evidence to support a social capital view of ‘trust as credit’ in interactions between students and lecturers, and provide suggestions for how lecture recording can be used to support widening participation students in this area.

“Open Science” encourages researchers to improve the reliability, repeatability and reproducibility of results. While stemming from the reproducibility crisis in psychology, open science is relevant for all fields. In education research these practices include pre-registering experimental designs, sharing analyses where appropriate, and pre-printing research reports. How can veterinary education implement these lessons? In this short opinion piece, following the ‘Open Science for VetEd’ workshop, hosted at the VetEd 2021 Annual Conference, I discuss what opportunities open science presents for veterinary education researchers, and why these approaches can benefit the field.

“Open Science” encourages researchers to improve the reliability, repeatability and reproducibility of results. While stemming from the reproducibility crisis in psychology, open science is relevant for all fields. In education research these practices include pre-registering experimental designs, sharing analyses where appropriate, and pre-printing research report. How can veterinary education implement these lessons? In this short report accompanying the ‘Open Science for VetEd’ workshop, hosted at the VetEd 2021 Annual Conference, I discuss what opportunities open science presents for veterinary education researchers.

Lecture recording is the process of capturing the visual and/or audio aspects of a lecture for students to access at their own convenience. Recorded lectures have the potential to benefit student learning through making lecture content more accessible, however effects on student attendance, attainment and engagement are debated. This is of particular interest to professional degrees, which teach to standards set by professional bodies and have limited control over curriculum content. The aim of this study was to explore student and staff use and opinion of lecture recording over an academic year in a professional degree to see how patterns of use may change after lecture recording becomes common place. Four students provided longitudinal blogs over the academic year (four blogs per students) which were thematically coded. Student use of lecture recording changed over the academic year, and was sensitive to the structure of the veterinary programme. Concurrently, semi-structured interviews with staff members highlighted frustrations with lecture recording technology and a perceived lack of flexibility due to recording. Guidance and support is needed to help staff and students to overcome these problems.

The VetEd conference was developed with the aim of growing an educational community by providing an opportunity to share ideas, innovations, research, and best practices in veterinary education in a friendly, affordable, and inclusive environment. The annual conference has been hosted by the veterinary schools in the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands, becoming the official conference of the Veterinary Schools Council in 2017. The current study investigates the extent to which the development of the conference has contributed to the evolution of a community of practice. The conference proceedings’ abstracts were analyzed to identify trends in number, type, and author information. This was complemented by oral histories exploring the impact of VetEd on developing the veterinary education community. The number of abstracts has increased from 40 (2010) to 137 (2018), and these are predominantly posters, with the major themes being technology-enhanced learning, clinical skills, and assessment. The authors have been increasingly international, representing 8 countries in 2010 and 22 in 2018. Nine interviews were undertaken with those involved in organizing VetEd. The inclusivity of the conference and the engagement of a wide variety of delegate groups are key themes that emerged. Concerns emerged around the organizational challenges and the potential for the conference to outgrow the founding principles in the future. VetEd has become a key event in the annual calendar and represents an initiative that has contributed to the ongoing development of the veterinary education community.

Lectures are a commonly used teaching method in higher education, but there is significant debate about the relative merits of different classroom practices. Various classroom observation tools have been developed to try to give insight into these practices, beyond the simple dichotomy of “traditional lecturing versus active learning”. Here we review of a selection of classroom observation protocols from an ethological perspective and describe how this informed the development of a new protocol, FILL+. We demonstrate that FILL+ can be applied reliably by undergraduate students after minimal training. We analysed a sample of 208 lecture recordings from Mathematics, Physics, and Veterinary Medicine and found a wide variety of classroom practices, e.g. on average lecturers spent 2.1% (± 2.6%) of the time asking questions, and 79.3% (± 19%) of the lecture talking, but individuals varied considerably. The FILL+ protocol has the potential to be widely used, both in research on effective teaching practices, and in informing discussion of pedagogical approaches within institutions and disciplines.

In this study, 295 (13.8% response rate) first year students in a large, Scottish, Russell-Group university were surveyed on their attitudes to and use of lecture recordings in 2018. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare ranked responses between students in different categories relevant to monitoring equality and diversity, such as carer status (5% of respondents), learning adjustments (9% of respondents) and non-native English speakers (27% of respondents). Students most commonly watched a full lecture by themselves when studying with 60% watching a full lecture at least once a week. Non-native English speakers were more likely to watch specific parts of a lecture more frequently (H(2) = 8.52, P = 0.014). Students with learning adjustments more often reported being unable to find a resource (H(3)=8.356, p = 0.039). There was no effect of students’ language, carer status or learning adjustment status on their self-reported likelihood to attend a lecture, likelihood to change note taking behaviour, or concentrate on a lecture if it was being recorded. Non-native English speakers were still more likely to worry about keeping up with a lecture, even when it was being recorded (H(2) = 10.492, p = 0.005). In conclusion, lecture recording has different impacts on students from different backgrounds, and inclusive lecture recording education policies need to consider this impact.

The rapid rise of social media in the past decade represents a new space where animals are represented in human society, and this may influence human perceptions, for example driving desire for exotic pet keeping. In this study, 211 participants (49% female) between the ages of 18 to 44 were recruited to an online survey where they viewed mock-up pages from a social media site. All participants saw the same image of a primate but were randomly assigned to a pro exotic pet keeping or anti exotic pet keeping narrative condition. When participants were presented with the anti narrative they perceived the animal to be more stressed (&chi, 2 = 13.99, p &lt, 0.001). In free text comments, participants expressed reservations in the face of a narrative they disagreed with in free text comments. Overall, this study found evidence to suggest that people moderate their discussions on human-animal interactions based on the social network they are in, but these relationships are complex and require further research.

As continued COVID-19 disruption looks likely across the world, perhaps until 2021, contingency plans are evolving in case of further disruption in the 2020-2021 academic year. This includes delivering face-to-face programmes fully-online for at least part of the upcoming academic year for new and continuing cohorts This temporary pivot will necessitate distance teaching and learning across almost every conceivable pedagogy, from fundamental degrees to professionally accredited ones. Each institution, programme, and course will have its own myriad of individualised needs , however, there is a common question that unites us all: how do we provide teaching and assessment to students in a manner that is accessible, fair, equitable, and provides the best learning whilst acknowledging the temporary nature of the Pivot? No ‘one size fits all’ solution exists and many of the choices that need to be made will be far from simple, however, this paper provides a starting point and basic principles to facilitate discussions taking place around the globe by balancing what we know from the pedagogy of online learning with the practicalities imposed by this crisis.

Lectures are a commonly used teaching method in higher education, but there is significant debate about the relative merits of different classroom practices. Various classroom observation tools have been developed to try to give insight into these practices, beyond the simple dichotomy of “traditional lecturing versus active learning”. Here we review of a selection of classroom observation protocols from an ethological perspective, and describe how this informed the development of a new protocol, FILL+. We demonstrate that FILL+ can be applied reliably by undergraduate students after minimal training. We analysed a sample of 208 lecture recordings from Mathematics, Physics, and Veterinary Medicine and found a wide variety of classroom practices, e.g. on average lecturers spent 2.1% (±2.6%) of the time asking questions, and 79.3% (±19%) of the lecture talking, but individuals varied considerably. The FILL+ protocol has the potential to be widely used, both in research on effective teaching practices, and in informing discussion of pedagogical approaches within institutions and disciplines.

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.

Animal welfare science features interdisciplinary and collaborative working across fields, spanning behavioural ecology, psychology, veterinary sciences, economics, and fundamental biology. However, education research is not yet prevalent within the animal welfare literature. In a Web of Science topic search there were 188 papers which specifically discussed or explored how to teach animal welfare from 1978 to 2017. Of these, only 34% (n = 61) specifically focused on instructional design or pedagogical research, and these were predominantly within veterinary education (57%). Despite this, the literature is in broad agreement that animal welfare education is an important topic that should be done well. Within the UK, there were a possible 586 animal-related courses within Universities College Admissions Service database for potential students to choose from, highlighting the significance of robust and considered educational practice. The current gaps identified in the literature were discussion of hidden curriculums outside of veterinary degrees, animal-centered education, the blueprinting of assessment, and authentic assessment. Therefore, this review proposes that animal welfare scientists interested in education consider discipline based educational research (DBER) practices, and engage more fully with the educational research literature. A key component of DBER is the recognition that specialist knowledge needs to be taught by specialists, and so it is important that animal welfare scientists begin to access educational research too.

Assessment and feedback are interrelated challenges for higher education, being perceived as key facets of the quality assurance of degrees, and yet commonly found to be sources of dissatisfaction for students. We performed a thematic analysis on the free-text comments of the National Student Survey for a large, Scottish, Russell Group university and found recurring themes of alienation versus belonging in how the students discussed assessment. We used Social Identity Theory to explore these themes and concluded that assessment can act as a barrier between staff and students, especially where students are not given effective feedback. When students feel their assessment excludes them from a group (such as their discipline), they express dissatisfaction and frustration. This study adds to the growing body of work encouraging a dialogic approach to ensure students are able to make the best use of feedback, and suggests it may also have the encouraging side-effect of improving student satisfaction.

Mental health challenges are of growing concern to the veterinary community. Within veterinary education, there has been increasing focus on building resilience in students and identifying likely stressors, such as the transition into the veterinary curriculum for first-year students. In this study, we evaluated a peer-led project to provide pre-arrival materials to incoming students. Through a combination of learner analytics and post-course surveys, we investigated usage of resources and the effects on student’s attitudes toward the veterinary curriculum. Over the 2 years the course has been running, 159 students (64% of total) have visited the course, but only 39% ( n = 98) have actively engaged with the materials. The course was most frequently accessed from Friday to Sunday (53% of visits), and over 50% of the visits occurred 1 week before arrival. The post-course questionnaire in the first year of the course’s delivery had a 17% response rate ( n = 24) and most students (71%) reflected on feeling anxious about beginning their studies. 88% said they felt they had benefited from the material’s availability. While not all students used the resources, providing peer-led teaching opportunities at high-stress points is an effective method of easing transitions.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a rapidly expanding avenue of diversification for higher education institutes. MOOC development is varied, individual course teams may have near complete creative control over the content, style, format and aims of their course, or be led by MOOC-specific teams within their institution. A single institute therefore may offer a wide variety of courses from short introductory level discussions to learning outcomes pitched at the postgraduate level. In this study, we examined the performance of four relatively long-running MOOCs offered by Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh: EdiVet Do You Have What It Takes to Be A Veterinarian; Animal Behaviour and Welfare; Chicken Behaviour and Welfare; and Equine Nutrition. Comparisons were made between the format and style of courses, their learning outcomes, and performance metrics such as completion rate, user satisfaction and benefit to institute. Retention was a challenge for all session-based MOOCs, with Chickens being most successful at retaining 50% of its potential audience until the start of Week 3. The average retention rate across all lectures and sessions was 38.5% (±14.08). All courses showed a notable female learner bias far above the Coursera average of 39% (Range Chickens: 58.1% ±3.1, Equine: 79.3% ¬±1.69). The majority of learners were North American or European (Range, Animals: 64.0±0.6, Equine 84.0%±3.0%). Across all courses, over 25% of learners had already achieved a Master’s degree or higher. A qualitative analysis of 188 learner stories revealed an overwhelmingly positive experience, highlighting the quality of resources, a perceived friendly relationship with the course instructors and referencing perceived barriers to education in face to face models. In conclusion, high quality digital resources embedded in well-designed courses can be a powerful tool to widen access to science education, however the MOOC platform does not necessarily reach a wide global audience, and may still struggle to widen participation in higher education, and alternative platforms are worth considering.

Animal Behaviour and Welfare was a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) hosted on Coursera as a free introductory animal welfare course. Through interrogating Coursera data and pre-/post-course student experience surveys, we investigated student retention, student experience, changes in attitudes, and changes in knowledge. The course ran for 5 weeks, and 33,501 students signed up, of which 16.4% (n=5,501) received a Certificate of Achievement, indicating they had completed all assessments within the course. This retention rate is above the industry standard of 10%; however, the value of retention rate as a metric to judge MOOC success is questionable. Instead, we focus on demographics, with Coursera data estimating that 41% of learners came from Europe, 35% from North America, 11% from Asia, 6% from Oceania, 5% from South America, and 2% from Africa. Most learners had completed an undergraduate degree. Despite this wide range of backgrounds, 57.2% of post-course respondents (n=2,399) strongly agreed that the information presented was at the right level and 64.9% strongly agreed that the course was interesting. After completion, more students (χ2[4]=132.40, p2[4]=361.32, p

Simple Summary The interchangeable usage of the words “personality”, “temperament” and “behavioral syndromes” in animal behavior research has often led to confusion. In this paper, we devise a framework for describing the behavioral phenomenon, betweenindividual/between-population variation, and between/across context variation. This framework can be used to give unique definitions of the three terms, supported by previous literature, giving clarity moving forward in the field of animal behavior. Abstract Ethologists use a variety of terminology such as “personality”, “temperament” and “behavioral syndromes” almost interchangeably to discuss the phenomenon of individuals within a population of animals consistently varying from one another in their behavioral responses to stimuli. This interchangeable usage of terminology has contributed to confusion within the field of animal behavior and limits the study of the phenomenon. Here we use a rapid, non-exhaustive and repeatable search strategy literature review to investigate where there were unique distinctions between these three terms and where there was an overlap in their usage. We identified three main areas of confusion in terminology: historical usage which is not updated; a lack of precision between different fields of study; and a lack of precision between different levels of variation. We propose a framework with which to understand and define the terms based on the levels of variation ethologists are interested in. Consistent individual animal behavioral variation relates to the different structures of variation of between-individual/between-population and between and across contexts. By formalizing this framework we provide clarity between the three terms which can be easily defined and understood.

The use of an automated gesture recognition system to teach the commonly adopted, seven-stage hand hygiene technique to veterinary undergraduate students was evaluated. The system features moderate gamification, intended to motivate the student to use the machine repeatedly. The system records each handwash stage, and those found to be difficult are identified and reported back. The gamification element alone was not sufficient to encourage repeated use of the machine, with only 13.6 per cent of 611 eligible students interacting with the machine on one or more occasion. Overall engagement remained low (mean sessions per user: 3.5, ±0.60 confidence interval), even following recruitment of infection control ambassadors who were given a specific remit to encourage engagement with the system. Compliance monitoring was introduced to explore how students used the system. Hand hygiene performance did not improve with repeated use. There was evidence that the stages—fingers interlaced, rotation of the thumb, rotation of the fingertips and rotation of the wrists—were more challenging for students to master (p=0.0197 to p

Lecture recording is sometimes considered a disruptive technology which has the potential to supplant the traditional higher education model through fundamentally changing how students are taught. Despite this, there is limited evidence that lecture recordings affect student attendance or attainment, and so it is not clear why lecture recording is considered so disruptive. An evaluation was run in a large Russell Group Institution in the UK in 2018 as it rolled out an institute-wide lecture recording programme. In this study, in-depth interviews with 13 staff members and free-text responses from 159 first-year student survey respondents were analysed using constructivist grounded theory to explore why lecture recording is viewed as disruptive, and what the implications of this are for teaching. Both staff and students were concerned with issues which happened inside the classroom (proximate) and wider issues about education (ultimate issues), but these concerns manifested differently between the groups. Overall, the act of recording a space was considered transformative, creating a digital artefact which was both highly valued by students as a ‘tool’ to improve their learning, but impacting on the overall ‘show’ that lecturers felt was a core aspect of the lecture. Ultimately, staff were also concerned that recordings ‘canonised’ the material, and made students too reliant on lectures, whereas students viewed the recordings as a safety net. The implications of this transformative power of recording for teaching are discussed.

Online pet obituary sites host hundreds of obituaries regarding the passing of companion animals. Often composed by the owner or primary caretaker of the animal, they are a potential source of data about human–animal bonds where there were strong positive human emotions surrounding the animal at point of death. The aim of the present study was to characterize on-line pet obituaries and to evaluate their usefulness as a source of information on the human–animal bond. One hundred and thirty full obituaries of dogs were studied. Where the role of the writer could be identified, the majority of obituary writers identified themselves as a female parental figure to the dog (34.6%); however, obituaries were also written by male parental figures (7.7%) and children (5.4%). Most obituaries (60%) fell within the 100-400 words length range. Obituaries were seen to express several key concepts. For instance, dogs were described as “child-like,” “part of the family,” showing “sympathy” and/or “gratitude” to the owner, and having a “sense of humor.” For their part, writers expressed “guilt” over the dog’s death, discussed a concept of the “afterlife” and noted an “instant connection” between themselves and the dog. A high proportion of the obituaries discussed the afterlife (51%) and indicated that the dog was considered part of the family (49%). There were some significant associations between concept usage within obituaries. Dogs that were described as “child-like” were more often perceived to be in an “afterlife” and to have had an “instant connection” with obituary writers (x2 = 38.08, p < 0.001). We conclude that online pet obituaries can be a valuable source of information on human feelings surrounding a companion animal death.