The University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine first offered the elective Student Shelter Opportunities I (SSOI) course in 2016 to provide pre-clinical students with an opportunity to engage with shelter medicine and high-quality, high-volume surgery (HQHVS) concepts. The course utilized online asynchronous coursework to deliver content that was completed on a self-guided timeline by students. With most of the veterinary medical curriculum delivered in a traditional classroom format, it is important to assess learning in this unique course format. There is also limited information on educational experiences in online shelter medicine coursework. This retrospective study aimed to evaluate student learning in the asynchronous online portion of the SSOI elective course using paired pre- and post-test scores from a multiple-choice type assessment. The study investigated how students' pre-test and post-test scores compared and whether time to completion of material influenced student assessment performance. Paired assessments from 400 students were analyzed, and a statistically significant increase was found in post-test scores compared to pre-test following completion of the online coursework (p < .001). There was no significant difference in the mean change in score from pre-test to post-test for students who completed the online course material in 30 days or less compared to those who completed it in greater than 30 days. This study's findings support online asynchronous learning as an effective option to teach veterinary students and can be considered in the development of veterinary coursework, including for curricular adjustments to increase online learning during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Keywords: assessment; e-learning; shelter medicine; veterinary medical education.