The paper presents an overview of the usage of Instagram as a social media platform for teaching and engagement in the field of dairy cow nutrition and management. Our Instagram content, which includes posts, stories, hashtags, reels, and live videos, aims to educate and engage our followers and covers a wide range of topics, including research updates, student activities, and information on dairy cow health and welfare. This approach to education allows us to reach a larger audience while also providing a forum for interaction and discussion on essential dairy cow nutrition concerns.

Over the last years, there has been an increase in online educational resources and media device use for educational purposes in veterinary settings. However, an overall analysis of these studies providing measurements of the use of learning resources and media devices could be particularly useful for veterinary teachers. The evolution of technology, coupled with the advent of pandemic-related restrictions in person lessons, has made it imperative that educators consider how students may access educational material, as well as what type of educational material may be available to them. Databases including PubMed, Scopus, CAB Abstracts, and Web of Sciences were searched for relevant studies from January 2012 to June 2022. A mini-meta-analysis for proportions was performed using RStudio. Results highlight a high use of portable media devices with differences among countries, continued good use of traditional textbooks, moderate use of online tools, and low use of research papers. The results suggest that despite living in a technologically advanced world, veterinary students have attitudes towards digital resources that cannot be assumed.

Horses reared for meat production are generally fed a diet rich in starch with the aim of maximizing production performances. This study evaluated the effects of two feeding management systems on horse welfare by analysing the relative time spent engaged in different behavioural activities. Nineteen Bardigiano horses aged 14.3 ± 0.7 months were randomly assigned to one of two group pens: one group was fed high amounts of starch-rich concentrates (HCG; n = 10), the other was fed a fibre-based diet (HFG; n = 9). Behavioural activities performed by each horse were video-recorded over a 96-h period. A scan sampling process (n = 144 scans/horse/day; total n of scans sampled = 10,368) was used, and the scans were analysed according to a specific ethogram. The mean frequency (%/24 h) spent exhibiting each behavioural activity was calculated to obtain the time budget. After checking for normality (Shapiro–Wilk test), Student’s t tests (normally distributed data) and Mann–Whitney tests (not normally distributed data) were used to compare the time budgets of the two groups of horses (HCG vs. HFG). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to identify the components explaining the variability in behavioural activities between the two groups. K-means cluster analysis subsequently confirmed the PCA results. The behavioural activities associated with feeding horses a fibre-based diet correlated with better horse welfare compared with feeding horses a starch-based diet. Feeding horses a fibre-based diet resulted advantageous from both the welfare and economic perspective; it allowed horses to spend more time expressing feeding behaviours and reduced energy expenditure in the form of excitable, or “fizzy”, behaviours.

Background: Recognition of the factors that influence academic performance in university students constitutes one of the key objectives of education researchers. Few studies have been conducted in this sphere in relation to veterinary students; however, considering the high levels of depression, anxiety symptoms, and decreased life satisfaction revealed in recent literature for this demographic, understanding these factors is of great importance. Moreover, the literature on veterinary education has mostly focused on cognitive factors as antecedents to academic performance, while very little attention has been directed toward personal characteristics. Methods: The present cross-sectional study aims to investigate the relationships between psychological characteristics (internal locus of control and self-efficacy), academic fit, well-being (engagement and exhaustion), and academic performance (average grade) among veterinary students. The study was conducted in the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Turin between September 2021 and January 2022 involving 231 students. Results: The results of the Structural Equation Model confirmed a positive relationship between both internal locus of control and self-efficacy and academic fit, which in turn showed a positive relationship with engagement and a negative relationship with exhaustion. Finally, a significant positive relationship between engagement and academic performance was highlighted. Indirect effects were also significant, confirming the mediating role of academic fit and engagement. Conclusions: The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the direct and indirect relationships among the variables selected in a sample group of veterinary students. These findings provide information for practical interventions that could support the academic experience and prospects of veterinary students by improving their psychological parameters and well-being.

Communities of practice (CoPs) are social systems consisting of individuals who come together to share knowledge and solve problems around a common interest. For educators, membership in a CoP can facilitate access to expertise and professional development activities and generate new collaborations. This teaching tip focuses on online CoPs and provides tips for setting up and running such communities. The initial planning phase involves establishing the purpose of the CoP, recruiting an administrative team, designing the structure of the online environment, and choosing a platform. Once the online platform is launched, running the CoP involves building the membership, encouraging engagement (primarily in discussion forums), finding ways to create and share useful resources, and sustaining the community as an active and effective CoP. We also describe a specific example of an online CoP for veterinary educators involved in clinical skills teaching. The membership has grown to represent an international community who engage in a range of activities including sharing knowledge, tips and ideas, asking questions, discussing challenges, and promoting collaborative activities.