COMPUTER-AIDED-LEARNING AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IN VETERINARY CLINICALPATHOLOGY

Since 1990, Murdoch University in Western Australia has offered a Mast er of Veterinary Studies (Small Animal Medicine and Surgery) degree by distance education to veterinarians all over Australia. Similar to th e other units within the course, the fundamental instructional medium of the clinical biochemistry component is print supplemented by audio teleconferences, personal phone calls and E-mail. To resolve problems that occurred using mutlipart written cases studies, a simple DOS-base d computer program (CaseMaster) was developed to simulate case studies . In 1995, 12 CaseMaster case studies were used to supplement the prin ted material provided and provide a form of assessment for each of the 21 students enrolled in the unit. Each text file and the files requir ed to run CaseMaster were copied by the program to a disk which was th en mailed to the student. The files were keyed to the diskette and cou ld not be copied. Each CaseMaster case was composed of a series of 'qu estions' consisting of a block of text and/or laboratory data ending i n a question. Each new question started with the answer to the previou s question. Students could go back and look at earlier questions and t heir own answers at any time, but they could not change their answers once they had been completed. Students were encouraged to include ques tions for the instructor in their answers where appropriate. The finis hed case studies were returned to Murdoch University, the answer files printed, comments and assessment made and the printed answers returne d to the students with a printed copy of the case study questions. The re was an excellent sense of interaction between most of the students and the instructor in these case studies. At the end of the semester, the students were sent a questionnaire and the results analysed. CaseM aster was very well received by the students. They thought it was an e xcellent way to learn clinical biochemistry and worth developing furth er. The negative aspects identified by both students and the instructo r were the large input of time required, especially in the earlier cas es, and the limited word-processing capacity of the program.