On a morning in April, students in the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) sat in a blue-walled classroom in the McGrath Library, their laptops open, ready to take notes. What they experienced was something very different.

With the help of virtual reality headsets, each student was immersed in a swine barn 90 miles from St. Paul. 

“They can see the pigs walking around them, behind them, hear the sounds. The only thing I can’t replicate is the smell,” says Perle Zhitnitskiy, an associate professor of swine health and management in the CVM Department of Veterinary Population Medicine.

Zhitnitskiy is at the forefront of integrating new technology into her classroom, a trait that recently earned her the Zoetis Distinguished Teaching Award, the most prestigious teaching honor bestowed by the CVM. Each year, the winners are chosen by faculty and veterinary students. 

Zhitnitskiy has been integrating VR into her Food and Fiber selective 1 course for five years. The exercise was originally meant to lift logistical barriers of shuttling a large group of third-year students to a farm and ensuring everyone was getting the best on-site learning. Zhitnitskiy says the virtual experience can also help ease students into the real deal.

“The first time we actually do it in person, they know what to expect,” Zhitnitskiy says. “I don’t think it can replace the real-life experience, but it can decrease the amount of anxiety or overwhelm of that first visit. For others, it may spark an interest in working with a species that would not have been on their radar otherwise.”

Fostering curiosity, and then nourishing it, is at the heart of how Zhitnitskiy views the role of a teacher. She credits her own strong mentors with shaping how she shares knowledge with her own students.

“Teaching is also telling a story. Very rarely do people come to vet school because they already know they want to work with pigs, but I can create opportunities that may open their minds and show them there are different career paths,” she says. 

While many people in academia are fighting against artificial intelligence, Zhitnitskiy’s next project will integrate AI chatbots into upper-level courses starting this fall semester. 

Students need to practice having difficult conversations with clients because it is part of day-to-day veterinary practice—hypothetical cases such as animal cruelty or navigating being pressured into speaking badly about a colleague. 

“It’s something that is difficult to include in our curriculum because it may or may not happen during their clinical year,” Zhitnitskiy says. 

Setting up a tool that allows students to practice uncomfortable conversations is a key part of Zhitnitskiy’s teaching philosophy. 

“We need to give our students the opportunity to try something for the first time in a supportive, safe environment,” she says. 

Throughout her career, Zhitnitskiy has come to understand that many students are afraid to fail, but that some of the best learning comes from making mistakes. 

“With those high-stakes conversations, it could feel like they don’t have room to make mistakes and try again,” she says, adding that this is where chatbots can help. 

Students can try, fail, and try many more times without consequence. 

“We need to understand that we cannot be great at something right away,” Zhitnitskiy says. “That is not what learning is.”