Introduction: Virtual continuing education can provide valuable learning opportunities on cutting-edge technologies and allows to maintain up-to-date knowledge. MicroMOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have become increasingly important in higher education, thanks to their ability to provide flexible and widely accessible learning opportunities for students and professionals worldwide. With the increasing global need for aquatic veterinarian services, traditional educational methods face challenges in providing accessible, timely, and comprehensive learning experiences. MicroMOOCs are suitable to enhance the aquatic veterinary education, providing compact, targeted, and high-quality educational modules that can be accessed remotely by learners.

Methodology: We evaluated the effectiveness of MicroMOOCs and evaluated their potential in aquatic veterinary education and toward competence certification programs. When designing these programs, advantages and limitations of this approach should be kept into consideration, evaluating the pedagogical models and the updated contents delivered. The WAVMA Education and Students Committee (ESC) actively works to dispense complementary training to aquatic students, veterinarians, and para-veterinarians around the world. We analyzed the example of the successful WAVMA WebCEPD (Continuing Education and Professional Development) webinar series, in which lectures are given by invited experts from various fields of expertise. Live webinars can be attended upon free registration and the recordings remain available through the WAVMA website. Upon the completion of a short knowledge and skills assessment (KSA), Continuous Education (CE) credits can be obtained by each participant.

Conclusions: Virtual learning opportunities have become important tools in higher education thanks to their ability to provide flexible and accessible learning opportunities, and to democratize education. MicroMOOCs offer a promising opportunity to revolutionize the veterinary education and we do recommend further exploration of this model to meet the evolving needs of the aquaculture industry.