A quantitative questionnaire with revised learning objectives was distributed to ESVN
members (comprising 142 veterinarians specially interested in neurology and 72 ECVN
residents) and 127 ECVN members (Diplomates of the ECVN).
In phase 1, a total of 140 learning objectives (Additional file 1) in 8 categories were
developed (1. Anatomy and Physiology; 2. Pharmacology and Toxicology; 3. Genetics and
Molecular Biology; 4. Clinical Methodology; 5. Disease Mechanisms; 6. Neuroanesthesia
and Neurosurgery; 7. Neuroradiology; 8. Pathology).
In the category Clinical Methodology, the abilities of performance and interpretation were assessed, in Neuroanesthesia /Neurosurgery and Neuroradiology the learning objectives were sub-categorized into theory and practice.
The developed quantitative questionnaire with all these learning objectives was then
distributed to 341 ESVN and ECVN members using Surveymonkey (an online-survey
provider).
Every member received a unique link by e-mail for the questionnaire, which was active for 3 months.
The users could pause and continue the questionnaire at any time during
the active period. All data of this study were used anonymously and treated confidentially
according to the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. The clearance for this research
project was given by the data protection officer of the University of Veterinary Medicine
Hannover and followed the ethical regulations of the university.
The questionnaire was compounded of single/multiple choice questions for demographic
data, Likert scale for learning objectives and free text for comments. Respondents were
requested to indicate the importance of the learning objectives for undergraduates based on
Bloom’s taxonomic classification [14,15] using the following Likert scale:
1 = Not Necessary
2 = As Beginner - Theory knowledge: knowing terms
Practice Skills: knowledge of theory by practice
3 = As Advanced - Theory: Being able to interpret
Practice Skills: perform under instruction by practice
4 = As Expert - Theory: Being able to discuss intellectually
Practice Skills: perform independently
Additionally, an option “No Idea” was available, and responses of this option were excluded
from statistic analysis.