Teaching Outbreak Investigations with an Interactive Blended Learning Approach.

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Public Health
• Medical Education
• Interdisciplinary Studies

Background:

• Veterinary public health (VPH) is crucial but often overlooked in veterinary curricula.
• Current German VPH education relies heavily on theory, lacking practical case studies.
• A need exists for more interactive and applied learning methods in VPH.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate an interdisciplinary blended learning module for VPH, focusing on outbreak investigations and zoonoses.
• To assess student acceptance of a combined case-based and blended learning approach in veterinary education.
• To establish a framework for creating interactive VPH case studies.

Main Methods:

• Developed an interdisciplinary module integrating epidemiology, food safety, and microbiology using blended learning (online and classroom components).
• Implemented the module in the seventh semester of the veterinary curriculum.
• Collected student-reported evaluations of the blended learning concept and self-assessed learning outcomes over three years.

Main Results:

• 80% of students positively evaluated the case-based and blended learning combination for interdisciplinary teaching.
• 76% of students reported positive self-assessed learning outcomes.
• Three online and one in-class interactive cases were developed.

Conclusions:

• The interdisciplinary case-based blended learning approach is well-accepted and effective for teaching VPH topics.
• This method enhances the quality of VPH education and student learning outcomes.
• A practical framework for developing realistic VPH cases for curricula was established.