Differential impact of unguided versus guided use of a multimedia introduction to equine obstetrics in veterinary education L.J. Govaere Jan a, * , Aart de Kruif a , Martin Valcke b a Dep. Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium b Dep. Educational Studies, Ghent University, Belgium article info Article history: Received 23 June 2011 Received in revised form 4 November 2011 Accepted 5 November 2011 Keywords: Teaching/learning strategies Virtual reality Multimedia system Improving classroom teaching Distributed learning environments abstract In view of supporting the study of the complex domain of equine obstetrics, a FoalinMare multimedia package with 3D designs has been developed. The present study centers on questions as to the most optimal implementation of the multimedia package in veterinary education. In a pretest-posttest cross- over design, students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Experimental conditions varied – next to a traditional lecture based introduction to equine obstetrics – from independent exploration of the FoalinMare DVD, to independent guided DVD usage, to guided classroom usage of the DVD. As dependent measures, student mastery of knowledge and skills, cognitive load and self-efficacy were measured. Results point at the significant superior impact of studying with the FoalinMare DVD on skills acquisition and higher levels of self-efficacy. In addition, experimental conditions that build on guided usage of the multimedia application, result in superior performance. Building on the cross-over design, the guided classroom usage boosts in a significant way the knowledge acquisition in the subsequent learning phase in the control condition. Building on these results, implications and directions for future research are presented. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Equine obstetrics presents a complex and challenging knowledge domain to both veterinary students and teaching staff. It requires the mastery of a specific set of integrated knowledge and the mastery of complex skills (Schmid, Stolla, & Leidl, 1994). The foaling process is swift and requires efficient diagnosing and targeted intervention skills. The seasonality in equine breeding management, the small numbers of obstetrical cases in horses, the limited study time and the high costs of veterinary training impedes winning experience (Frazer, 2002; Rodriguez-Martinez, 2004; Schmid et al., 1994). Nevertheless, there is a need to gain more experience and an increased exposure to routine cases in theriogenology work (Routly, Taylor, Turner, McKernan, & Dobson, 2002) since it represents a significant portion of practice activities (Krustritz, Chenoweth, & Tibary, 2006). Providing possibilities to ameliorate education in equine obstetrics through animations and movies might be part of a solution to deliver students more insights without the need to increase the numbers of experimental animals for educational purposes (Einstein, 1997). In human medical education, several multimedia applications (animated movies, virtual reality simulations (McDougall et al., 2009; Sultana, Levy & Rogers, 2001) and simulation dummies (Daniels et al., 2010), even computer-guided dummies (McDougall et al., 2009), are available and become more and more realistic (Ennen & Satin, 2010). In veterinary medicine, due to smaller numbers in students and differences in budgets, unfortunately, such tools are rare (Bossaert et al., 2009; Frey & Paschmioka, 1996; Rother, Heuwieser, & Hallmann, 1999). Although the use of dummies might give a more realistic impression to students, flexibility and cost of those tools are limiting the success and user- friendliness in an educational setting. The former has inspired the FoalinMare project that has resulted in the development of a multimedia package that introduces learners to equine obstetrics. The adoption of multimedia to support complex learning is a constant and key approach to ground assumptions about its impact is the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) of Mayer (2001). A basic principle, put forward in the CTML, is that learning * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ32 9 264 75 66; fax: þ32 9 264 77 97. E-mail addresses: jan.govaere@ugent.be (L.J. Govaere Jan), aart.dekruif@ugent.be (A. de Kruif), martin.valcke@ugent.be (M. Valcke). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Computers & Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu 0360-1315/$ – see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.11.006 Computers & Education 58 (2012) 1076–1084