WikiVet English:About
Introduction
WikiVet is a collaborative initiative involving UK veterinary schools with support from a number of commercial and government sponsors. The project is creating a comprehensive online knowledge base which covers the entire veterinary curriculum. This will provide a reliable reference source to supersede Wikipedia for veterinary students, nurses and graduates anywhere in the world. To find out what WikiVet has to offer see WikiVet Introduction.
Site Development
WikiVet has been created in a similar way to its big brother Wikipedia. However there are three distinct differences between the two systems. First, all the content relates specifically to the veterinary curriculum. Second, all the content has been authored by vets and students and is peer reviewed by subject specialists at one of the participating veterinary schools. Finally, access to the site is restricted to the veterinary community in order to ensure that the general public are not able to edit the content.
A unique feature of WikiVet has been the level of cooperation not only between academics at different schools but also involving the students. At the beginning, over 40 student authors have worked together writing most of the content and this has been reviewed by recent graduates. The students have enjoyed this work and claim that they have learnt a lot more about the subject matter as a result. Their inspiration has also resulted in a number of significant improvements to the site such as interactive content maps, flash cards and clinical cases.
History
2007
The WikiVet project started work in April 2007 and initially involved academics from Cambridge, Edinburgh and the Royal Veterinary College. The initial funding was provided by JISC and HEA. The first stage involved the creation of WikiPath covering the veterinary pathology undergraduate curriculum. This has subsequently been extended to include WikiAnatomy and Physiology, WikiBlood, WikiBugs, WikiVPH, WikiClinical and more.
2008
In 2008 the project was joined by the Nottingham Veterinary School. Activity on the site expanded to cover most of the curriculum including new section on WikiNormals and WikiDrugs.
The British Society of Toxicological Pathologists funded the WikiVet server in November 2008.
2009
In January 2009 the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Trust provided funding to cover the development of an interactive question bank called WikiQuiz.
Pfizer are funding the general WikiVet site development and sponsoring the WikiMaster from 2009 - 2014.
A new section relating to most aspects of donkeys started to be developed in Autumn 2009. The content was provided and sponsored by The Donkey Sanctuary. Also in 2009, WikiSnakes and WikiLizards started to be developed.
2010
Restructure to improve the user-friendliness of the hole site was started and we hope for it to be finished soon. This will make it easier to use the search function and get to the topic of interest fast. Categories are being used to allow for navigation via different routes. The work is to continue in 2011.
Snakes and Lizard sections are completed now.
A new collaboration with CABI has allowed links to CABIAbstracts literature search to be inserted on many pages. Some direct links to full text articles have also been included. The full text articles can be accessed by any WikiVet user but the literature search is only accessible via CABI subscribing organisation or personal subscription.
2011
Restructuring the site work continues.
A new function has been added to allow users to view pages in PDF format or create their personal 'book' to print.
Recruiting expert reviewers for the content is now one of the priorities.
More Information
- More detail about some developments can be found on Wiki News pages
- You can find out more about the team currently working on the site at WikiVet Team and the community of practice which has been working on the wiki in the past: Wiki Vet Community
- Companies and organisations that sponsored WikiVet: Sponsors
- Educational research behind the WikiVet approach Theories
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No derivatives 2.0 License