Investigation of training and development options for research and teaching animal users: a case study

Abstract

Laboratory Animal Science is a rapidly evolving field encompassing a range of diverse discipline areas. With Russell and Burch's "Three R's" providing a fundamental tenet to this science, focus has been on, and will continue to surround, how institutions and individuals can further contribute to these principles. As laboratory animal professionals much of our activity in this area surrounds the use of refinement strategies. An impor tant contributor to refinement is staf f competence. Whilst the definition of competence causes considerable controversy, it is widely accepted that formal education or training is an important component of "competence" attainment. Legislative instruments per taining to animal research and teaching throughout the world are placing increased emphasis on this aspect of refinement; necessitating institutions to examine their mechanisms for achieving this amongst their staff members, and being able to document this level of attainment. Modern research institutions typically have to contend with issues such as high staff turnover (especially amongst students and visiting academic staff), resourcing constraints and short term studies. These, along with numerous other factors, make implementation of such mechanisms problematic to achieve in a consistent and timely fashion. The purpose of this article is to describe the processes instigated at our institution at the University of Adelaide, in order to address one aspect of competency attainment in animal use in our organisation. An ADDIE model26 of instructional design was used to investigate training needs, determine pedagogical approaches, create an online training package and evaluate the implemented strategy. A case study of our efforts is presented. Some reflection is also made on the training course itself, and the evaluation and implementation strategy that was chosen. It is anticipated that our experiences will guide others embarking on training course design and provision, especially in light of enhanced requirements for documentation of competency, flexibility in course provision and increased technology use in education.