Practice Makes Perfect
Compressing a Decade into a Day Using Computer Gaming to Learn Johne's Disease Control Program Design
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21423/aabppro20104135Keywords:
Johne's disease, control programs, computer simulation, gaming, clinical experienceAbstract
Johne's disease (JD) control in dairy herds requires changes in herd management in combination with routine use of diagnostic tests and specific actions on test results. Outcomes of JD control programs, i.e. changes in prevalence, take at least five or more years to be seen on farms. Thus, it takes many years before bovine practitioners personally experience the success or failure of JD control programs in their clients' herds - a long learning cycle. Computer simulations allow for gaining clinical experience on virtual farms before tackling JD control in reality. Gaming concepts challenge learners to attain a passing score or improve their score by repeated attempts; in effect, trying to model expert behavior.