First experiences with VETstream – streaming-video-technique for veterinary continuing education

VETstream was presented at the AMEE conference 2004 as a tool for veterinary studies and continuing education. VETstream-clips are online lectures (clip of lecturer + slides) in a streaming-video-format (.mpg4). In 2005 the Annual Meeting for Reproductive Medicine (38. Jahrestagung für Physiologie und Pathologie der Fortpflanzung und gleichzeitig 30. Human- Veterinärmedizinische Gemeinschaftstagung) was documented as VETstream. This conference consists of a scientific part and a part for veterinary continuing education. In the scientific part 64 lectures were held, 56 (87.5%) lectures agreed to publication in the internet or on CD-ROM. In the part for continuing education 27 (90%) of 30 lecturers gave their agreement. With the VETstream-clips it was possible for the participants of the conference to work on the whole data of the lectures. The Evaluation of the users ofVETstream is still running. First results (n=15) show that VETstream is useful (1.25; 1=yes, 4=no), that it is a good addition to the abstracts (1.33) and that the users wish more conferences to be documented like this (2.0).

In conclusion, it is possible to document whole conferences with justifiable effort and great profit for the participants.