Six U.S. universities aiming to encourage faculty collaboration and improve the teaching of veterinary medicine have teamed up to form the Southeast Veterinary Educational Consortium.
The participants are the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, Lincoln Memorial University, North Carolina State University, the University of Tennessee and the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.
“Many people might not know that when faculty come to a veterinary school, they’re often teaching their trade and may not know the most effective way of sharing their knowledge,” said Juan Samper, DVM, Ph.D., Florida’s associate dean for academic and student affairs. “Our goal is to address this by combining the mindset of professional veterinarians with that of teachers.”
The partnership is expected to kick off in 2019 with an initial meeting and then hold annual summits.
Veterinary colleges in the Western United States collaborate similarly, sharing best practices for raising the level of teaching.
“We veterinarians don’t get taught how to teach,” Dr. Samper said. “We come in trying to emulate the great teachers we had, but in these changing times, technology is affecting the way we do things.
“The newer generations have a different way of learning, and we need to think about how we as educators adapt to these different learning styles.”
Georgia’s associate dean for academic affairs, Scott Brown, VMD, Ph.D., said the consortium “will allow us to enhance career development among our faculty, ultimately benefitting our students and the society they will serve.”