Merck Vet Manual and VetMedAcademy Sponsored Contest Yields “COVID Educational Creations” Learning Module for Veterinary Students

Earlier on in quarantine, VetMedAcademy and the Merck Veterinary Manual sponsored a contest to identify those who have discovered and deployed innovative online approaches to reaching and encouraging interaction with their distant students.

A link to the learning module, which consists of 13 examples developed from the winning educational resources, may be accessed (free registration is required) at www.vetmedacademy.org/covid-educational-creations-contest-page. The names of the award winners and the titles of their entries are listed on this page.  

All of the submitted educational resources are shared on VetMedAcademy.org.

VetMedAcademy and the Merck Veterinary Manual sought entries from instructors who had “turned lemons into lemonade.” The relevant topics included any in veterinary medicine and/or animal health, and all instructors (faculty, resident, intern or other) in veterinary or veterinary technician programs were eligible to apply. Evidence of positive student feedback was in some cases submitted to strengthen the instructor’s entry.  

The submissions were reviewed on creativity and instructional merit by four judges: a practicing veterinarian, a recent veterinary graduate and past chair of the educational committee of the International Veterinary Students Association (IVSA), a veterinary specialist and editor, and an educationalist specializing in online education.

Submissions consisted of publishable “educational artifacts” of instruction. Thirteen cash prizes were awarded to the winners and honorable mentions between $100 and the grand prize of $1,000 to faculty from 11 universities. 

The award winners in order of their placement were:

1. Ariana Boltax (Cornell University); Title: Communication Training Scenarios for Small Animal and Exotic Euthanasia  

2. Shelly Olin, Jacqueline Whittemore, and Zenithson Ng (University of Tennessee); Title: Pandemic Virtual Clinic

3. Margaret V. Root Kustritz (University of Minnesota); Title: Communications in Small Animal Practice

4. Stephen A. Hines (Washington State University); Title: Podcast-style case discussions with recent students to teach basic principles of immunology to first year DVM students  

5. Allison J. Stewart (University of Queensland); Title: International Equine Clinical Case Repository

6. Kendon Kuo (Auburn University); Title: Emergency and Critical Care Jeopardy

7. Maria Fahie (Western University); Title: Assessment of Critical Thinking Assignment

8. Samira Schlesinger, Wolfgang Heuwieser, Stefan Borchardt, Peter Venjakob, Sebastian Arlt, Franziska Sutter, and Lisa Riege (Free University of Berlin); Title: Reproductive Veterinary Medicine: Cisco Webex Meetings