The Competence Centre for E-Learning, Didactics and Educational Research in Veterinary Medicine is a cooperation of all German-speaking veterinary universities with the goal to enhance the quality of veterinary education. One part of the project is the setup of an online lecture series for all veterinarians including students.

The monthly online-lecture in Adobe Connect about late-breaking veterinary topics with lecturers from all participating universities was promoted via mail, internet and journals. The experts lectured via audio, webcam and presentation. The participants were able to interact with the expert and each other via text-chat. The lectures were recorded and the recordings were analyzed for the activity of the participants.

By now 13 online lectures took part with an average of 100.9 (max. 277) participants and 90.6 (+ 23.4) minutes duration. 12 recordings were analyzed and showed that 39.2% (+ 22.14) of the participants were active during the lectures. 92.1% of 1615 postings in the chat were done by participants. 51.2% of the chats were about social topics, 14.4% about technical and 3.6% about organisational questions, 31.6% of the postings were about the topic.           

This study indicates a great interest in online lectures about extraordinary veterinary topics in students and veterinarians. The analyses could prove that participants in online lectures are active and discuss about the topics as they use the opportunity to interact in their social network.

Online lecture series enable the participants to take part in expert events and raise the activity in a social and professional environment.

The Competence Centre for E-Learning, Didactics and Educational Research in Veterinary Medicine was established in 2012 and is funded by the Foundations Volkswagen and Mercator.

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KELDAT is a co-operation of all German-speaking institutions for veterinary education in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.