DEVELOPING INTERACTIVE TOOLS FOR LEARNING VETERINARY ANATOMY

Anatomy is a basic and tough discipline in the veterinary curriculum. Very often there is a need of showing very detailed aspects on the basis of clinical requirements, either for surgeons or for the new image diagnosis techniques. The emphasis on clinical-applied teaching together with other aspects such as high numbers of students and the trend towards increased student-centered learning, mean a great pressure on teachers and resources. The University Complutense of Madrid has been implementing innovative education projects for about the last ten years. We have participated in a few of them with the objective of elaborate interactive tools that complement the student´s instruction, which is mainly a text-based one. The main goal is to promote independent and deep approaches in the students, this means that they can study in their computers at home with a more dynamic and clinical-applied tool. Up to date we have elaborated two interactive CD-ROMs focused on the anatomical study of the head as the basis for image diagnosis, magnetic resonance and computed tomography. Thus, we put emphasis in the “transversal learning”, looking for the interest not only of students but also professionals. In the short-term, it remains to clarify the requirement and role of the teacher in relation to student´s use of these resources.