Monday 14 October 2013

e-Media Unit collaborates with EuFMD

The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD) program is collaborating with the RVC eMedia Unit to create an e-learning site which supports government vets working to control FMD in the field. The site includes a comprehensive Induction course and a new Foot-and-Mouth Disease Emergency Preparation course. The courses have been created by the RVC e-learning team working closely with subject specialists at the EuFMD and comprise a combination of expert authored content, videos, forums and assessment. 

The EuFMD states that if a country experiences an FMD emergency, it can be difficult to rapidly train large numbers of vets in key FMD issues – particularly if vets are recruited from non-government service to provide support. In such a situation, this course can be made available rapidly to large numbers of member state vets, enabling them to do the course. Veterinary management can then be provided with a list of who has completed the course, and will have confidence that a basic level of training has therefore been achieved.

EuFMD already provides each member state with the option of having some vets trained in FMD on their real-time courses, but veterinary management may wish to have larger numbers of vets trained on FMD. These course will be made available to member states who can then nominate a number of vets to take part. Such a session would be accompanied by a tutor  on the forum to encourage discussion and answer questions. This training of course is not as in-depth or comprehensive as the real-time courses, but it can complement and support other training activities such as seminars. In an environment of reduced resources for veterinary services, this e-learning course may be able to fill a training gap in an efficient way, supporting member state preparedness.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

RVC Goes Mobile!

The RVC has just launched a mobile App for students which provides access to much of the core information that they need through their mobile phones.It is available to download for iPhones, iPads, Android tablets and phones, Bleckberry devices and Windows 8 tablets.

The App includes Campus Maps, Freshers’ Week information, Students’ Union News and Information, RVC News, Travel Information, Search the Staff Directory, Library Search and Loan Renewals, PC Availability around Campus, Print Credit, IT guides to setup your devices and much more.






Feedback in the first week since the App was released has been enthusiastic from students and staff alike. User statistics show that the majority of students have now downloaded the app and the the most popular feature has been the ability to view the interactive course timetable.

The App was developed in collaboration with Ombiel who have developed similar mobile applications for many other universities.



Friday 26 July 2013

Posters for the Vet Education Conference in Dublin



We were co authors on a number of posters presented at the excellent Vet Ed conference in Dublin this July. Here are a few samples:






Friday 17 May 2013

Online Anatomy Review Lectures


We ran our first online revision lecture last night through the Blackboard Collaborate platform. This builds on the Online Veterinary Anatomy Museum (OVAM) project which is a collaboration between 15 partner schools from the UK, Europe, India and Africa. The lecture was presented to an invited audience of over 50 veterinary students from around the world.

The first lecture, given by Dr Stephen Frean, focused on comparative anatomy of the dog, human and horse. The intention is to provide a useful revision resource which students in their early years at vet school can listen to whilst working for their exams. The lecture ran for a little over an hour using text, images and annotated skeletal images (fascinating). The session was also recorded and can be viewed at : http://www.onlineveterinaryanatomy.net/online-lectures


We have scheduled a series of follow on lectures - building on lessons learnt from this first lecture. These will be given by lectures in Edinburgh, Utrecht and London (see below). The series will be held on Thursday evenings at 6pm UK time. Join live or alternatively watch the recorded lecture afterwards. 

The Lectures:

  • 16th May 2013 - Comparative Functional Anatomy of the Forelimb - The first revision lecture will be presented by Dr Stephen Frean, senior anatomy lecturer at the Royal Veterinary College.
  • 23rd May 2013 - The Digestive System  - Dr Victoria Waring, Lecturer in Veterinary Anatomy at the Royal Veterinary College.
  • 30th May 2013 - The Thorax - Dr Claudia Wolschrijn, University of Utrecht.
  • 6th June 2013 - The Skull, Mandible and Dental Anatomy of the Dog and Cat - Dr Andrew Gardiner, Lecturer in Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh.

Thursday 21 March 2013

New video featuring the Bloomsbury Learning Environment

This video describes some of the ways that the five Colleges in Bloomsbury are using the online conferencing tool Blackboard Collaborate to deliver Distance Learning programs.

Saturday 2 March 2013