Abstract:

The teaching of veterinary parasitology is facing important challenges including the need to reverse the current downward trend in the teaching status of this scientific discipline. New technical advances could facilitate the teaching/learning of this complex discipline and provide innovative opportunities for facilitating students to acquire and enhance the myriad of practical skills demanded in future professionals that want to work in animal health and infectious diseases, as they will provide support to animals, their owners and enhance public health considerations.

In collaboration with EBVS® European Veterinary Specialists in Parasitology from the Veterinary Faculty at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM, Spain), the DMU e-Parasitology® team [De Montfort University, DMU, UK; and the Spanish Universities of San Pablo CEU and Miguel Hernández de Elche] has started to incorporate resources and content for the teaching and learning of animal parasitology in the DMU e-Parasitology® website package (http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk). This novel package has four modules for the appropriate teaching of medical and general parasitology: a theoretical module; virtual laboratory and microscope modules; and a virtual case studies module. Content developed so far of interest for veterinary students/academics includes two units on the theoretical module, specifically on Leishmania spp. and Toxocara spp. (T. canis and T. cati), and a virtual clinical case study specifically built for final year veterinary students and/or students that have previously studied veterinary parasitology. Units and materials already available in the virtual laboratory and virtual microscope modules are applicable to veterinary science, but further animal clinical slides will be added to the virtual microscope to make it more specific. Ten final year UCM veterinary students have used the DMU e-Parasitology® package and completed the animal parasitology virtual case study during their rotation in “infectious and parasitic diseases of companion animals” in the final year module of Clinical Rotation to test the new content developed. Thus, seven students voluntarily provided comprehensive feedback on their experience with DMU e-Parasitology®, which will be used to enhance the new animal parasitology units created. 85.7% of participants indicated that the overall design of the website is appropriate and engaging (14.3% neither agree nor disagree) and all (57.1% agree, 42.9% strongly agree) considered that the veterinary content was relevant to their studies. All participants highlighted that the exercises and other assessments presented in the theoretical units have enhanced their learning (71.4% agree, 28.6% strongly agree); meanwhile 85.7% (71.4% agree, 14.3% strongly agree) reported that completing the virtual animal clinical case study increased their knowledge on the parasitic diseases studied. Finally, students indicated that the package helped them to learn the clinical and pathological features (85.7% agree, 14.3% strongly agree), treatment (42.9% agree; 57.1% neither agree nor disagree) and prevention strategies (57.1% agree; 42.9% neither agree nor disagree) for the animal parasites studied. In conclusion, the novel resources on animal parasitology available in the DMU e-Parasitology® package could help students to acquire different practical skills to perform clinical diagnosis and management of the parasitic diseases studied in companion animals.

Keywords:

DMU e-Parasitology, animal parasitology, teaching, companion animals.