Vicki Dale

Vicki H.M. Dale LIVE Research Fellow, Lifelong Learning

About me

I'm a Research Fellow in the LIVE Centre, appointed in April 2007 to explore lifelong learning in veterinary education. Therefore adult learning theory, continuing professional development, and career aspirations and choices are things that fall within my remit.

What I hope to get out of this project

I'm really interested to see how the pathology residents engage with this resource. I also like evaluation research, so determining the usefulness of the resource as a teaching aid is of interest to me i.e. how can we validate it? I'm also interested in how we can replicate good face to face communication in an online environment.

My best learning experience

and why it was good

Pathology that interests me

As an Educational Technologist, as part of the CLIVE project, I authored a number of pathology computer-aided learning programs with veterinary pathologists at the University of Glasgow, mainly Dr. Hal Thompson. What I liked about the programs I developed with Hal is that they were largely visual, and he explained the pathology as he went over his storyboards, so I could understand it, which helped me to structure the learning activities in the CAL. He also saw a lot of interesting cases, including forensic pathology, which he brought into the teaching, along with his knowledge of the history of pathology. As a former archaeologist, this interested me greatly too.

Pathology that is difficult

I guess as a visual learner I find it easier to concentrate on gross pathology, or very noticeable clinical signs of disease. Once it starts getting to the microscopic level it starts to get tricky for me, as although it's visual, it's a bit more abstract.