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Case Study: University of Edinburgh, The Virtual Farm

Summary

• A collection of technology-based resources (a mixture of bespoke & commercial)
• The above resources are collectively known as "Virtual Farm".
• It is delivered via a bespoke VLE and it is embedded within the "Virtual Veterinary Practice"

Why this elearning approach was used

• Desire to enhance the learning experience of veterinary students specifically relating to the two (dairy & sheep) working University farms and to utilise technology to provide genuine "added-value".

• The "Virtual Farm" project aims to provide readily accessible stimulating and challenging electronic learning resources designed to encourage students to increase their knowledge, understanding and confidence sufficiently to optimise the use of the real-life educational farm resources (animals, agricultural practice and records).

The context in which it was used

• There was a focus towards the "learning" aspect of the resource with facilities for group work, analysis of individual real-life animal data, online discussions with the farm manager and input into topical and current farm issues.
• The "Virtual Farm" will emphasize and further integrate the immensely valuable resource of the farm and provide an "electronic showcase".
• The new educational materials will be available to students at a time of their choice.

The design

• The "Virtual Farm" is an area within VLE containing numerous resources relating to the farms, like:

1.      General information on location and personnel

2.      "Farm tours"

3.      Regular newsfeeds

4.      Webcams streaming live images from two separate farm sides

• Students are given "adopted" farm animals (cows and sheep) and they can access relevant management and veterinary data on these animals.
• Within the system, the data from electronic recording student allows

1.      Electronic identification and recording of all milking cows-neck transponder

Individual health, production and movement records for every cow.

2.      Electronic identification of calves allowing them to be fed and predetermined amount of milk via a computer-controlled feeding system-automated concentrate feeding-electronic weighting facility.

3.      Automatic identification and recording of all health production and movement records for sheep via electronic ear tags.

Implementation of this learning approach

• Introduction to First year students through a demonstration of where to find it and its major features.
• 1^st semester: Farm based tutorial session-collection of information about their own adopted animals which then formed the basis of a wider discussion of farm animal husbandry.
• Wikis training-video editing-uploading data provided by the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine learning Technology Section.
• Monthly newsletters sent to the students via the VLE noticeboard-RSS newsfeed.
• Direct links to the animal husbandry wikis leading to detailed information about current husbandry issues and events on the farms. As a result, the students learn more about these topics but also it helps them to develop an understanding of animal husbandry in the context of the farming year.
• Text, picture and video demonstrations of farm animal handling skills to reinforce and revise the skills taught in practical classes.
• Data from the dairy herd is extracted electronically which is used in statistics course to demonstrate the course relevance and students become familiar with this type of data.