The Evolution of the Veterinary Technology Distance Education Program

There are two American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) accredited Veterinary Technology programs in Virginia. One is located at the Loudoun campus of Northern Virginia Community College while the other is at BRCC in the Shenandoah Valley. Historically, the Loudoun program has served its surrounding localities while the Blue Ridge program has served the rest of the state. In an attempt to increase the number of licensed veterinary technicians in Virginia and to serve a population unable to travel to either campus, BRCC decided to establish a distance education program linking its program and the Virginia Beach campus of Tidewater Community College. Virginia Beach was chosen for this pilot program due to its increasing population and the demand there for licensed veterinary technicians. It would be very expensive for TCC to establish its own AVMA accredited program. The BRCC program owns over $190,000 in equipment and has an operating budget of around $200,000 a year.

In 1995, BRCC had no compressed video classroom, no personnel trained in distance education, and no plan for using distance education. My computer skills were limited to word processing. By January 1998, I had a VCCS Professional Development Grant, a Chancellor’s Commonwealth Professorship, and two distance education courses in our new Veterinary Technology Distance Education Program under my belt. By the end of spring semester 1998, BRCC had a well-equipped classroom, several trained faculty, an instructional technologist, and a plan to restart the program in August 2000 utilizing two distance sites, Virginia Beach and Virginia Western Community College.

Getting Started

There were many challenges in developing this unique type of program. It was designed as a part-time program to allow the students to continue working in veterinary hospitals. The students are all females, many with families. This program allows them to work during the day and take courses two nights a week. Only the 15 required Veterinary Technology (VET) courses are being transmitted over the VDEN. Students must have completed or be in the process of completing the general education requirements for an associate’s degree.

The first step at BRCC was to design and outfit a distance education classroom, known as the Commonwealth Classroom. I received funding from BRCC’s Title III grant to attend the two-week Academy for Distance Learning at the Teletraining Institute in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This valuable training provided the foundation needed to get the Commonwealth Classroom operational. The VCCS Compressed Video Network and the instructional technologists at the five established sites¯NOVA, TCC, NRCC, JSR, and SWCC ¯have all been valuable resources while working in these uncharted waters.

Advertising the program and finding students was relatively easy. I sent letters to every veterinary hospital east of Williamsburg and wrote articles for the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association Newsletter and the local Tidewater newspapers. This resulted in numerous calls and letters. A videoconference recruiting session was held at TCC in October, with 48 people attending. Since their Commonwealth Classroom only held 20 students, question and answer sessions were held in shifts. Over 30 applications were received.

By August 1997, I had interviewed and accepted 20 students, found veterinary clinics for them to perform the required tasks, and created over 200 pages of handouts for Anatomy and Physiology and a more modest number for Introduction to Veterinary Technology. In the 2 weeks prior to the start of classes, 3 students dropped out, 2 others changed veterinary practices, 3 new students signed up, and I contacted 5 new clinics to participate in this program. On the first night of class, which I attended at TCC, there were 20 students. Most of the logistical issues with TCC such as which institution received the course tuition, credit hours, and who paid for local support had been settled, and a classroom facilitator was hired. The fact that the facilitator is a licensed veterinary technician has been an immeasurable help in managing the class and helping students.

Challenges

One of my tasks in creating this new program was to locate, design, and outfit a classroom to use for compressed video. Luckily, a new building was just being completed on campus, and classroom renovations were underway. An abandoned biology lab was available which fit many of the criteria needed for this type of classroom. Since there was no one on campus with any expertise in distance education, I was dependent on others for help. Dave Richardson, Scott Langhorst, and Lew Terpstra at the VCCS systems office; Jose Melendez at NRCC; and Pat Hunt at NVCC were particularly helpful with room design and equipment needs.

In September 1996, my Chancellor’s Commonwealth Professorship started. I had planned to use this released time to develop the program, including student recruitment, hospital placement, other logistics, and course design for the 15 courses we needed to transmit. I knew what needed to be done, but I wasn’t prepared for the time involved in formatting our courses for the compressed video format.

Reformatting all the courses to fit distance transmission was very time consuming and often frustrating. There were many logistical questions that needed to be answered. It was clear that three-, four-, and five-credit courses with laboratory sessions would fit the three hours per week lecture format and some flexibility in credit assignment for outside activities would be required if the program was to be completed in a reasonable time period. The fact that the summer term is several weeks shorter than the fall and winter ones created some scheduling hurdles. Currently the program, as designed, may be completed in eight semesters. Once it is accredited, graduates will then be eligible to take the Virginia Veterinary Technician licensing exam.

Veterinary Technology courses utilize a large number of images. It was necessary to digitize slides and create CD-ROMs using BRCC’s extensive Kodachrome collection. These would be given to the students to supplement classroom instruction. There are various types of equipment that can be used to provide visual images in distance education. A special slide-to-video converter was obtained to show slide carousels. We also use videotapes, laser disks, and the Elmo visual presenter to demonstrate various topics. There are a limited number of prepared video products available for veterinary technician education, so these also needed to be created.

I’ve spent countless weekends in front of the computer at BRCC and at home creating course materials. In the last two years, I have learned how to use PowerPoint, Astound, Adobe PhotoShop, Windows 95, Microsoft Word 95, a flatbed scanner, a slide scanner, an Elmo document camera, a digital camera, and the VTEL equipment. I’ve attended 24 professional development workshops, thanks to our Title III grant, and there has also been lots of equipment experimentation.

The American Veterinary Medical Association, our accrediting agency, requires that we document the instruction and performance of over 200 essential tasks. In addition to putting every three-hour lecture on PowerPoint, I needed to create and/or assemble images to explain and demonstrate the various concepts and procedures. Since our program is heavily content laden, I also knew that I needed to create handout packets and have them available at the start of each course. I had to determine when and where each of these would be taught and how the documentation would be accomplished.

Once classes started, I used PowerPoint software to organize lectures. The first night, I made a startling discovery. Even though the students had detailed notes and textbooks on which the lectures were based, they insisted on copying every PowerPoint slide. As a result, I was only able to cover two-thirds of what I had planned. Now I realized that I had to create the lectures far enough in advance to create outline handouts and send them by Fed Ex to TCC. This involved more time and more pressure.

The logistics of distributing handouts, tests, and feedback forms is another issue which needed to be worked out and required constant planning days ahead for every class. The first week was a bit confusing, but I finally was able to coordinate with Fed Ex. Fast turn-around time is very important so that the students get test results in a timely manner. My courses had tests every other week, which created a lot of paper movement and more time commitment.

Another of the obstacles to conducting occupational/technical education at a distance is what to do with laboratory training. Since many of the Veterinary Technology courses include laboratory work, the students are required to work in a veterinary hospital at least 20 hours per week. The veterinarian and the student are furnished with a task list for each course, and the veterinarian must certify that the student has successfully completed the required tasks. In addition, students are required to travel to the Weyers Cave campus at least three times each semester for additional training and assessment.

Observations

Using the VTEL system for classroom instruction has been much easier and effective than I had expected. Although my students are in a Virginia Beach classroom 235 miles away, we can see one another and speak together. I feel like I know them as well as I do the students in our full-time program. In addition to video communication, we communicate via e-mail, phone, Fed Ex, and regular mail.

Distance education does work for occupational/technical training. My students at TCC performed as well as the full-time students I have been teaching for 20 years. As of this writing, five courses have been completed. When I compared students’ grades in the distance education courses and the traditional courses taught by the same instructor, the class quiz and final exam averages were within one point.

Teachers can instruct and students can learn using this equipment. While problems exist, they can be solved. Released time is necessary for faculty developing courses using new technologies. For programs such as Veterinary Technology, a sabbatical might be used for program development. Colleges need to devote more time to looking ahead, anticipating, and solving problems before they are encountered. Students don’t like confusion from faculty or the institution. Faculty need to know what will be expected and what will be provided.

Faculty training in distance education instruction is necessary. Use of the equipment is not difficult, but it requires additional thought and planning. One big difference between classroom instruction and teaching through compressed video is that the classes need to be carefully scripted and the lectures organized so that different activities occur during each class period; otherwise, the students get bored and lose interest. Most of the initial students will have enough prior college training, which should enable some experimentation in teaching strategies. It does take practice to become comfortable with seeing and speaking with students on a television screen. An additional problem is that the classrooms are arranged so that you can’t see all the students in any one camera setting. Thus, the instructor needs to frequently move the student camera to find those asking questions and to facilitate discussion.

There are other issues that will need to be settled, including staff support at the distant site for duplication, distribution, collection, and sending of papers back and forth. Many colleges start at different times and have different breaks, so there are scheduling problems to overcome. The VET classes will be videotaped for use by both the instructor and students who have excused absences. Copyright issues need to be worked out; otherwise, unscrupulous types might create their own videotape courses, which has happened at other schools in other states.

This is the fourth semester of this program, and it appears that the teaching is the easiest part. Glitches have occurred, but they have been minimal and there is always a plan B. Last week I lectured during Hurricane Bonnie, as TCC classes had not been cancelled. I did let the students leave an hour early. Coordinating on-the-job training with 14 different veterinary hospitals has been more challenging than I had hoped, but for the most part the students are getting more hands-on experience than they get in traditional laboratories. We haven’t lost any students since the first semester. What we learn from this first group of students will allow us to do even better next time.