Benefits and Independence. We have an opportunity to leverage veterinary education and gain all the major benefits educational technology provides today, while allowing each school or each department to have absolute independence and control over its local settings. The benefits are tremendous:

1. Increased quality of learning outcomes;
2. Broader access to education;
3. Improved return on investment;
4. Reduced costs;
5. Improved student and staff IT skills;
6. Increased global collaboration and super-intensive content/course production;
7. Supported up-to-date pedagogical approaches.

Connections, Collaboration and Results. We can connect all veterinary schools’ Virtual Learning Environments into one super-productive veterinary learning network with the Moodle Community Hub. Each school will be able to promote its courses, projects and communities of practice (databases, wikis, forums, etc.) to a local or global veterinary community; each student, veterinarian or faculty member will be able to search for content, networks or activities of their interest; and everybody will be able to collaborate in a fast, safe and convenient manner.

How? Are you wondering how this can be done in a cost-effective, safe, easy and user-friendly manner?

Single Sign-On. Depending on local permissions, faculty members and students will be able to roam from one school’s Virtual Learning Environment to another’s with a single sign-on. This feature can significantly increase the ease of system use, and motivate inter-institutional collaboration and student mobility.

Safe, Easy, Powerful, Flexible and Extendable. The system will be able to combine all the important benefits of the Web 2.0 environment with the safe, easy-to-control Moodle VLE tools, resulting in a powerful, flexible, extendable and user-friendly educational environment.

Customized to Fit Unique Needs of Each School.  An unlimited number of schools will be able to use one installation of the Moodle Virtual Learning Environment, but if a school or department wishes, it will be able to have its own Moodle VLE installation – and customize it to fit its unique needs.

Skills and Motivation. The most critical success factors for e-learning implementation are the skills and motivation of the faculty and IT staff. Therefore, courses and online communities of practice will be created for teachers and Moodle administrators.

Cost-Effective. Because Moodle is a free, open-source software, and schools and students are well-equipped with computers, the main cost factors will be planning, administration, course development and staff education. Collaboration between schools will significantly decrease costs on a per-school basis.

Business Model for Global Impact. The classic pay-per-service business model will be combined with free offerings to achieve a global educational impact, larger customer base (promote schools and programs globally), and create more user-generated content. In addition, the combination of pay-per-service and free services (freemium business model) will attract additional sources of revenue such as donations, grants and sponsorships.