Teaching Veterinary Histopathology: A Comparison of Microscopy and Digital Slides

Virtual microscopy using digitized slides has become more widespread in teaching in recent years. There have been no direct comparisons of the use of virtual microscopy and the use of microscopes and glass slides. Third-year veterinary students from two different schools completed a simple objective test, covering aspects of histology and histopathology, before and after a practical class covering relevant material presented as either glass slides viewed with a microscope or as digital slides. There was an overall improvement in performance by students at both veterinary schools using both practical formats. Neither format was consistently better than the other, and neither school consistently outperformed the other. In a comparison of student appraisal of use of digital slides and microscopes, the digital technology was identified as having many advantages.