Project Summary:

Authorized Organizational Representative:

Principal Investigator/Project Director #1:

Principal Investigator/Project Director #2:

Principal Investigator/Project Director #3:

Description of the Agricultural Communication Network Project:

1. Project Objectives:


• To improve agricultural research underlying agricultural telecommunications.
  
  
• Make optimal use of available resources for agricultural extension, resident education, and research by sharing resources between participating institutions.
  
  
• Train learners for careers in agriculture, natural resource management, environmental science, human sciences and the food industries.
  
  
  
  Explain how the project relates to the Program Objective(s) and how the Project will contribute to achieving these.
  
  Objective 1. To Improve agricultural research underlying agricultural telecommunications. As described above, the multi institutional horticultural DL network resulting from this project will conduct research that will contribute to the knowledge base that is necessary for the relatively new field of horticultural distance education to mature to point where it enters the mainstream of higher education in horticulture. Current claims of "no significant difference" (Russell, 1999) between the learning outcomes of DL courses compared to conventionally delivered courses has be criticized because earlier research has often involved precomputer ITs (video tapes, books, audio cassette, etc.), and/or has been poorly designed such that comparisons of computer mediated DL courses with conventional approaches have been highly confounded by not only differences in delivery technology but also by pedagogical approach. Relatively little modern research has been conducted to date that is designed to test clearly articulated hypotheses about the learning outcomes of DL. Our own earlier research (Mudge & Way, 1999), and additional research currently underway by Mudge, Mazza and Hennigan in cooperation with county Extension Educators, has focused on the effectiveness of asynchronous DL approaches to teaching hands on horticultural skills. As described above in the section Detailed description of methods to be used in producing and/or delivering the programming, we intend to conduct similar research directed at evaluating other interactive instructional strategies as part of this project.
  Objective 2. Make optimal use of available resources for agricultural extension, resident education, and research by sharing resources between participating institutions. The HCDS/D&D team approach described in the section Detailed description of methods to be used in producing and/or delivering the programming, is a novel strategy for horticultural DL development, which will allow us not just to share independently developed resources, but rather to share in their development. The horticulture faculty at each of the participating institutions each have unique strengths and areas of expertise to contribute. Cornell has a well developed infrastructure (ATC, Media Services, and Center for Learning and Teaching, described above) for supporting faculty DL module development, which is not matched at the other participating institutions, but which will be available to all participants involved in this project. This approach will enable us to develop resources that will be utilized by multiple audiences including undergraduate residential students at two and four year SUNY campuses as well as Alabama A&M University, and the instructional modules will also utilized for extension outreach programs including Master Gardeners in both NY and Alabama.
  Objective 3. Train learners for careers in agriculture, natural resource management, environmental science, human sciences and the food industries. The horticultural knowledge and skills imparted to students at participating two and four year universities by the instructional resources developed as a result of this project will help prepare them for a wide range of agriculture and related careers.
  
  
  


2. Description of Agricultural Communication Network to be Developed or Utilized.

The proposed project will utilize an Internet and other asynchronous instructional technologies to deliver instructional materials and foster active learning among students. Development of asynchronous modules will be based on the already completed grafting distance learning module developed by two of us (Mudge and Head; The How When and Why of Grafting, a Distance Learning Approach, http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/hort401/graftage). This Web-based grafting course, as well as additional modules which we propose to develop under this project are / will be on the "instruct1" Web server maintained by the Academic Technology Center at Cornell University. ATC does and will continue to support both the content Web pages as well as the CourseInfo discussion board and course management utility.

This first course (grafting module), was taught for the second time by Mudge during spring semester, 2000. The course is entirely asynchronous. Content delivery involves a series of Web-based lectures accessible from the URL above. Active participation of students (required) is accomplished mainly via a Web-based, threaded discussion board provided by CourseInfo (BlackBoard Inc.). A major part of the course is the hands-on laboratory exercises (grafting skill development). These hands-on exercises begin with student preparation using Web-based lessons that includes high resolution QuickTime video segments (on CD integrated with the Web page) to demonstrate hands-on psychomotor skills (grafting techniques). After studying this material students undertake their autotutorial lab sessions at the greenhouse, using live plant material (hibiscus), grafting knives, etc. Mudge and Way have published the results of a pedagogical experiment conducted during the first (pilot) offering of the course (spring, 1999) (Mudge & Way, 1999, Proceedings of the 15th annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, Madison, WI, pp 327-332). They compared the effectiveness of this asynchronous approach for teaching grafting and found that student learning was comparable to the traditional F2F approach. They also established the reliability of student self evaluation of their own mastery of grafting skills, i.e. student numerical self-ranking was positively correlated with instructor ranking. The course also included a group project assignment.

We propose to adapt this existing grafting DL "template" for other asynchronous horticultural instructional modules that will be developed as part of this project. Media Services, at Cornell is supporting the development of instructional video segments for Web-based delivery. Academic Technology Center has agreed to support not only Cornell faculty but also the other institutions participating in this project in the use of CourseInfo web-based interactive discussion and course management.






Describe the Cost/Benefit Analysis for purchasing (or leasing) different types of facilities, equipment, components, hardware and software, or other items. (complete only if applicable to your project).

Computer equipment listed in the budget under Nonexpendable Equipment would be useful to the project for at least 3 years. The computer work station factored into the budget request would cost $138/month to lease, which would total $4964, which is substantially more that the purchasing price of $3751.

3. Agricultural Communication Network Programming:


• Plant Science
  
• Other
  
  
  Describe the Programming and how it will contribute to achieving the Objective(s):
  
  The long-term goal of this project is to forge a multi institutional group of horticultural-related educators to collectively develop horticultural distributed learning (DL) resources. Our approach to DL resource development will be based on our several years of experience and research in this field already, as well as on additional empirical research designed to determine the most effective pedagogical strategies for teaching hands on horticultural skills and principles. During the next year we intend to us a team approach to develop three new DL modules, and pilot test these with two different target audiences, including residential undergraduate students (Cornell, SUNY Morrisville, SUNY Alfred, SUNY Delhi, and Alabama A&M University), and amateur gardeners (Master Gardeners and others through Cornell Cooperative Extension). Eventually we intend to recruit additional SUNY collaborators including SUNY-related Community Colleges, and other colleges and universities in the North East and beyond.

  Horticulture faculty at Cornell (Mudge) and at SUNY Morrisville (Head) have already made considerable progress in the development of the first horticultural DL module (grafting). Others horticulture faculty (listed below) at these and other SUNY and other cooperating campuses have made a commitment to contribute to this project as well. Rather than simply exchanging independently developed DL modules among the participating SUNY campuses, we intend to collaboratively develop the modules described in this proposal. A team of at least two faculty representing two or more of the participating institutions will work closely with a Horticulture Content Development Specialist (HCDS) and appropriate instructional design, technology, and evaluation specialists. The HCDS will be trained in horticulture as well as experienced in the use of appropriate instructional technologies (IT). Instructional modules developed through this project will be used to serve the needs of two broad categories of students. DL modules will be used "on campus" for traditional residential students, for both enhancement of conventional F2F courses and independent entirely asynchronous DL courses, at Cornell, SUNY Agricultural & Technology campuses, and at Alabama A&M University (an 1890 institution). Non traditional students, including Master Gardeners and others will be served via the existing Extension outreach network.
  



Detailed description of methods to be used in producing and/or delivering the programing.

Funding of the proposed project would make it possible to extend our ongoing horticultural distance learning initiative at Cornell to the level of a multi institutional consortium targeting both traditional residential undergraduate students, and non traditional students (amateur gardeners and horticultural professionals). These target audiences and the rationale for including them are described below.

The proposed project will be implemented in three stages. Stage I will involve instructional design and development of horticultural DL instructional modules in three distinct subjects, two of which will be tailored to suit the needs of each of the two target audiences. Stage II will involve pilot testing of each of the three modules with each of the audiences. The pilot testing phase will involve pedagogical research, evaluation and appropriate revision. Stage III will involve distribution of the modules for wider use, which will continue after the Agricultural Telecommunications funding period.

Selection of module content (subject areas). Although it is reasonable to assume some level of unsatisfied public demand for horticultural distance education across a broad range of traditional and non traditional students, it would not be reasonable to take it for granted. Our experience with the DL grafting course has shown that there is considerable residential undergraduate student demand and interest in asynchronous DL course work, due in part to the convenience of scheduling an autotutorial (any time, any place) course. We have less experience addressing the needs of non-traditional students. As we move beyond the current exploratory, proof-of-concept phase of our horticultural DL efforts, we regard it as essential to "ask the client", i.e. to assess both qualitatively and qualitatively the demand for these instructional services, among both the professional horticulture and the amateur gardener audience. Hence we have undertaken formal surveys of each of these audiences to determine the level of demand for horticultural distance education overall and the level of interest in specific subject areas. Mudge and Head received a grant from the Horticulture Research Institute to conduct a (paper) Survey of Distance Learning Needs and Preferences of the membership of the NY State Nursery / Landscape Association. Mudge and his graduate student, Kelly Hennigan are currently conducting a Web-based survey of amateur gardeners with the cooperation of Cornell Cooperative Extension, including Charlie Mazza (responsible for Master Gardeners program in his role as Leader, Homes-Grounds &Community Horticulture Program at Cornell), and cooperation from Extension Educators at the county level. County extension educators throughout the state have facilitated the survey by informing gardeners in their counties, via extension newsletters, about the web-based survey and directing them to the site (http://www.cce.cornell.edu/DistanceLearning/Horticulture/surintro.html). Results from both surveys will be presented this summer at the annual meeting of the American Society for Horticultural Science in Orlando, FL, by Mudges graduate student, Kelly Hennigan.

The needs and preferences of these prospective non traditional students, as determined by the survey results, have been reviewed by the PIs involved in this project and were key factors in choosing the subject matter for each of the three modules selected for development during the first year. The other primary consideration in choosing the subject matter of each of the modules was the three coPIs familiarity with the curriculum needs and preferences of undergraduate students at their respective institutions. The following three subject areas have been chosen for module development. For each module is listed the ultimate target audiences (residential undergraduate, RU; amateur gardener, AG), pilot testing audiences for this project, and the lead faculty.

· Plant Propagation / Micropropagation
Target audiences: RU and AG
Pilot testing: RU and AG
Faculty content providers: Ken Mudge* (Cornell University), Bill Head (SUNY Morrisville), and Bill Comes (SUNY Alfred)

· Biological Pest Control for Horticultural Crops
Target audiences: RU, AG, PH
Pilot testing: RU, AG
Faculty content providers: Eric Nelson* (Cornell), Ann Hyeck (Cornell), and Dominick Morales (SUNY Delhi)

· Greenhouse Management
Target audiences: RU, PH
Pilot testing: RU (as a supplement to a conventional undergraduate course)
Professional Staff/Faculty content providers: John Kumpf* (Cornell), Bill Head (SUNY Morrisville), Joan Wissert (SUNY Alfred)

For each of the three modules there will be a separate Design and Development (D&D) Team. The faculty/professional staff content providers listed for each of the three modules will be key members of the D&D team for the respective modules. Other members of the D&D teams are described below. The faculty member designated with the asterisk (*) above, will serve as the lead faculty for their respective module.

Module instructional design and development (HCDS/D&D Team Approach). The D&D team for each module will consist of the lead faculty or professional staff content provider (FSCP), other faculty content providers, the Horticultural Content Development Specialist (HCDS), an instructional design specialist from Cornells Academic Technology Center, one or more other IT specialists as determined from the instructional design process, and a course evaluation specialist from Cornells Center for Learning and Teaching. The HCDS will serve the bridge between the FSCPs and the instructional design, IT and course evaluation specialists on each of the three D&D teams. This same HCDS will serve on all of the three D&D teams, while FSCPs and some or all of the instructional designer and technology specialists may be different for each of the D&D teams. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell has an arrangement with the Academic Technology Center to provide instructional design and project planning services for DL course development in the college. Joan Falkenberg-Getman, Director of ATC, is experienced in instructional design and IT. She and her staff will provide the instructional design services for all three D&D teams, and work with D&D teams to arrange for other specialized IT services as necessary. David Way, Director of Instructional Support, in the Center for Learning and Teaching at Cornell, will serve as the evaluation specialist for all three of the D&D teams. Although variations on the D&D team approach to DL course development has been widely practiced nationally and has been utilized specifically for the development of Mudges DL grafting course and other DL courses at Cornell, the somewhat unique feature of the D&D team approach proposed here is the role of HCDS. We propose to hire, full time, an individual for this position who has the unique combination of graduate training in horticulture and who has a broad range of IT skills and experience (HTML, digital photography, image/video editing, etc.). The role of the HCDS will be 1) to work with faculty to define instructional objectives and develop a content outline, (2) function as primary author of the instructional modules by integrating faculty inputs and other sources of information/content (preexisting faculty course notes/text, slides, literature/documents, conduct necessary interviews, photography, make graphics, etc.), (3) coordinate and be involved in conducting the proposed pedagogical research. Using appropriate tools (authoring software) and engaging IT specialists as necessary, she will write the text, intercalate graphics and other images, produce CDs, etc. and otherwise assemble the final instructional module. This task of authoring the final product will involve not only working closely and interactively with faculty/staff content providers to assemble the content, but also working closely with the instructional design and IT specialists who will be recruited as necessary to provide services such as specialized HTML markup/ Java scripting, digital video services, etc. It should be emphasized that the HCDSs competence with horticulture-related subject matter is paramount in order allow faculty time to be used as minimally and efficiently as possible. Secondarily the HCDS must have sufficient IT skills to accomplish the routine tasks involved in module assembly, and especially to be able to facilitate the completion of more specialized IT tasks and "ask the right questions" of the appropriate IT specialists. This HCDS-coordinated D&D team approach to horticultural DL module development, in this cases, has emerged from Mudges experience in development of the grafting DL module, and the experience of many other faculty who have in effect served in the role of HCDS themselves. The old faculty-as-HCDS model is to time consuming for most faculty to get involved in DL authoring, and hence is not satisfactory for wide spread adoption of DL to horticultural or other academic disciplines.

As described above, the propagation module will be developed and tested in slightly different versions for the residential student audience and for the amateur gardener audience, while the biological pest control module will be modified as necessary for the same two audiences as well as for the professional horticulturist audience. A single version of the Greenhouse Management module will be developed and tested for the professional horticulture audience.

During the instructional design process for each module we intend to take full advantage of the pedagogical advantages of computer-mediated instruction. Tasks like visual identification (e.g., of plants and diseases), and problem solving skills (e.g. the process of disease diagnosis) are important components of a well rounded horticultural education that are especially well suited to CMI, but we intend to rise to the challenge of designing DL instructional approaches that facilitate the acquisition of hands-on skills horticultural skills (e.g. grafting and pruning), which are also essential to horticultural training. Our prior success with teaching grafting at a distance has shown feasibility of this goal. A combination of text, still images, and audio/video will be delivered primarily in an asynchronous, Web-based format, although some participants have expressed interest in the use of synchronous video conferencing as well, to foster student/instructor and student/student interaction. Learning objectives will stress student mastery of hands-on horticultural skills (e.g. grafting), synthesis of workable solutions to horticultural "problems", and the integration of practical skills with the underlying biological principles. Application of skills to industry practice will also be stressed. Depending on the particular module being developed, the balance between knowledge based and/or problem-based approaches (as defined by Turgeon) will vary.

Pilot Testing of modules. The two modules developed for the residential undergraduate student audience (Propagation and Biological Pest Control) will be offered as one credit courses at Cornell, Morrisville, Delhi and Alfred (SUNY), with Mudge, Head and Wissert, respectively, as instructors. Pilot testing of the modules developed for the amateur gardener audience will involve Master Gardner volunteers, arranged through the cooperation of Charlie Mazza who is a coPI with Mudge on a Hatch/Smith-Lever research/extension grant described below. Pilot testing of the Greenhouse Management module, under the direction of John Kumpf and Joan Wissert will involve undergraduate student volunteers from Cornell and Alfred. Evaluation and monitoring of all three course modules is described below.

Pedagogical Research. Although there is no substitute for experience and qualitative evaluation of pilot course for determining what teaching strategies are most effective, we believe that an experimental approach can an important tool as well. An important component of the overall project will be empirical research aimed at determining the most effective teaching strategies for delivering horticultural instruction at a distance. One set of experiment is currently underway, funded by a combined Hatch / Smith-Lever grant to Mudge and Mazza in collaboration with county Extension Educators, is intended to compare two different approaches for teaching hands on horticultural skills; one involving entirely asynchronous instruction and the other involving asynchronous instruction supplemented by F2F facilitation by an instructor. In the research planned for this project we propose to further explore the benefits and costs associated with other types of student / instructor and student / student interaction. The recently completed Spring, 2000 semester grafting DL module (1 credit course taken by 25, mostly residential Cornell students) included two interactive components - a threaded discussion board (asynchronous) and a student group project, but no attempt was made to quantitatively assess their effects on overall student learning, independent of other pedagogical components of the course.

Experiment 1. Impact of asynchronous discussion (student / student / instructor interaction) on learning outcome and student satisfaction. Although a recent metaanalysis of the literature on the effectiveness of various DL instructional strategies, suggests that discussion-based interaction can be highly effective in promoting student interest and learning (Report of the University of Illinois
Teaching at an Internet Distance Seminar, 1999), this must be balanced against the substantial commitment of instructor time which it requires. Hence this experiment will compare two randomly selected groups of students who receive the same Web-based instruction either with or without the interactive discussion board. Students will be preevaluated for their preferred learning style (extravert/introvert, as defined by Keirsey, 1998, Please Understand Me II. Prometheus Nemesis Book Company, Del Mar, CA) to test the hypothesis that extroverted students benefit more from the interactive DB than introverted students. Students will be evaluated for learning outcome and satisfaction by quizzes designed to test comprehension and by a post-course evaluation instrument designed with the input of David Way (as the Evaluation expert member of the D&D team).

Experiment 2. Impact of group projects (student / student interaction) on learning outcome and student satisfaction. The second innovation which was implemented during the Spring 2000 offering of the grafting course was a group project which involved requiring groups of two students each to design a simplified business plan for producing and marketing a fruit tree or ornamental tree crop which is propagated by grafting. Several of the projects turned in were highly innovative, carefully research, and impressively complete analyses. In many cases, however, students had insufficient background horticultural production and/or business training to develop even a simplified business production plan. As a part of the overall module development component of this project, and brief sub module will be developed outlining the steps and considerations involved in developing a crop production schedule and business plan (estimates of expenses and income). This experiment will be performed in conjunction with the next offering of the DL grafting course. It will involve comparing the learning outcome and satisfaction of one group of students assigned to do the project against a control group that does not do the project.

Module Distribution. Plans for long-term module distribution and marketing are evolving to meet the needs of the target audiences described in the section Population to be Served and Target Audience(s). After the initial pilot testing phase, suitably revised modules will be directly available to incorporate into the curricula as needed at each of the participating institutions including Morrisville, Delhi, Alfred, and Cornell, Alabama A&M University, as well as horticulture programs at other SUNY Ag & Tech and related Community College campuses that have expressed interest in this initiative. Distribution through the existing SUNY Learning Network is the most likely means of making the modules available to other SUNY institutions. As described above, the Master Gardner program, which exists nationwide, is be explored as a principle means of distributing the modules developed for the amateur gardener audience, and we have begun discussions about the possibility of distribution directly via Cornell Cooperative Extension and eventually other state Extension programs. The possibility of distribution via commercial gardening or green industry e-business Web site is being considered for both the amateur gardener and the profession horticulture targeted modules, as described below.




4. Population to be Served and Target Audience(s):

The proposed horticultural DL modules will be designed to meet the educational needs of a wide range of students including those enrolled in traditional residential campuses at the participating two and four year SUNY campuses, as well as the continuing education needs of horticulture industry professionals and amateur gardeners. The DL grafting course developed by Mudge and Head, as described above, as we as other horticultural DL resource developed or being developed at Cornell, have focused primarily on the curricular needs of residential undergraduate students. Over approximately the same period, we have been involved in conducting formal surveys, described above, to assess the horticultural DL needs and preferences of prospective non-traditional students including both professional and amateur. Hence three more or less distinct target audiences that will be served by this proposal have been identified and characterized. Two of these, the residential undergraduates and the amateur gardeners, will serve as the target audiences for the pilot/research phase of this project.

a) Residential two and four year undergraduate students (RU). Undergraduate students in the Departments of Floriculture and in the Department of Fruit and Vegetable Sciences (merged into the Dept. of Horticulture as of July 1, 2000), as well as other students in and outside of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, have shown considerable interest in the early DL courses offered over the past two years. Twelve students enrolled in Mudges DL grafting course 1999 and over 30 attempted to register for the course in 2000 (enrollment was restricted to 25). One of these students was an undergraduate at Finger Lakes Community College, which is one of the SUNY institutions participating in this project. The course is attracting more student interest from non-horticulture majors on the Cornell campus, than a similar content but conventionally taught course (plant propagation). From student feedback it is apparent that one reason for the popularity of this asynchronous course is its ease of scheduling and the unique subject matter. During 1999, Marvin Pritts from the Dept. of Fruit and Veg. Science at Cornell taught a video conference-based course in small fruits to an enthusiastic group of students at Penn State, and other such courses between the two institutions are under consideration. In a 1998 survey of undergraduate students in the College of Agriculture at Cornell, over half of the respondents indicated that they were interested in taking distance learning course while enrolled at Cornell. It is reasonable to infer from these observations that there is considerable residential student interest in horticulture-related DL courses.

b) Horticulture industry professionals. Internet delivery of content to professional horticulturists (landscape production and management, fruit production, etc.) is an exciting part of the future of extension outreach. Cooperative Extension at both Cornell and Alabama A&M (AAMU) have expressed interest in delivery of horticultural DL to these audiences, and are both cooperators in this project. Kathy Sabota, Extension Horticulturist at AAMU, plans to use the DL instructional modules developed through this project for an summer extension program aimed at training Alabama high school teachers to incorporate horticulture into their curricula. Another model is currently being explored for distribution of horticultural DL modules to horticulture industry professionals. That is distribution through a commercial e-business web site which specializes in wholesale marketing of plant material to the green industry (primarily ornamentals for sale at nurseries and garden centers. We have be approached by PlantFind.com which is developing its Web site not only to facilitate commercial business to business Internet-based transactions, but also to provide subscribers with horticultural information, including structured DL modules. We are exploring this opportunity for marketing/distribution of an industry-oriented version of the existing horticultural grafting module, and other modules could be developed in the future to serve this target audience. With encouragement from the Office of Academic Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell, we are exploring this possible university/industry DL relationship. Careful consideration is being given to intellectual property issues, with the premise being that DL materials would remain under the ownership of the University(s) involved.

c) Amateur gardeners. We are developing a strategy to address this audience in response to Cornells mandate to provide extension outreach programming to the citizens of NY, and those served by Alabama A&M University which is a cooperating institution in this project. With federal Hatch and Smith Lever funding through the Cornell Agriculture Experiment Station we are currently undertaking a research/extension project in cooperation with Extension Educators ("agents") in three NY counties. The objective of this research project is to determine the most effective instructional strategy for DL-based learning of hands-on horticultural skills, comparing the use of entirely asynchronous Web/CD-based instruction in grafting and micropropagation (non facilitated strategy) with a facilitated strategy that involves both the same Web/CD instructional materials as well as F2F instructional time with a county Extension Educator. In cooperation with the Cooperative Extension administration at Cornell we intend to develop an extension-based system for our existing and for new horticultural DL resources developed through this project for delivery to amateur gardeners. Our collaborator, Kathy Sabota, at Alabama A&M University intend to use resources developed through this program as a component of a four week intensive course for high school teacher about use of horticulture in their curricula. This will serve as a model for the use of these DL resources by other 1989 institutions and tribal colleges.




5. Collaborating Institutions and Other Partners:

Cornell University, SUNY College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
Mudge, K.W. (PI), Dept. of Horticulture
Falkenburg-Getman, Joan (IT specialist), Manager of Cornells Academic Technology Center
Way, David G., Director of Instructional Support, Center for Learning & Teaching at Cornell
Mazza, C., Leader, Homes-Grounds &Community Horticulture Program
Hennigan, Kelly, Graduate Student (w/Mudge), Dept. of Horticulture
John Kumpf, Greenhouse Manager (retired), Dept. of Horticulture
Eric Nelson, Dept. Plant Pathology, Cornell University
Ann Hyeck, Dept. Entomology, Cornell University

SUNY Alfred
Wissert, Joan (CoPI)
Comes, Jim

SUNY Morrisville
Head, W. (CoPI)

SUNY Delhi
Morales, D.

Alabama A&M University
Kathy Sabota, Extension Horticulturist, Department of Plant, Soil & Animal Sciences

Collaboration Strategy. Three independent Design & Development (D&D) teams will develop three horticulture DL modules (Plant Propagation, Biological Pest Control, and Greenhouse Management). Each team will consist of several content specialists from the faculty and professional staff involved in this project, a Horticulture Content Development Specialist (HCDS) an instructional designer (Joan Falkenberg-Getman), an instructional evaluation specialist (David Way), and appropriate IT specialists. The content specialists will differ with each D&D team while the same HCDS, ID, and IE will serve on all 3 teams. Pilot testing will be done at two of the participating institutions for each module, and all participating institutions will be involved in pilot testing of at least one module. Charlie Mazza (Cornell) will be involved in Cooperative Extension pilot testing and distribution of the modules through the Master Gardener program in NY, and Cathy Sabota will fill the same role in Alabama. The content providers for each module are listed below. All are faculty, except John Kumpf.

Plant Propagation: Mudge, Head, Wissert, Comes
Biological Pest Control: Nelson, Hyeck, Morales
Greenhouse Management: Kumpf, Wissert, Sabota






6. Additional Rationale for Project

From the food we eat to our perception of the environment we live in, horticulture is essential to human health, and well being. Production and consumption of fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals comprises a major part of our economy, and the lives of many people. Horticulture is engaged in not only by farmers and other plant production and management professionals but also the millions of Americans who derive sustenance and satisfaction from growing their own food or gardening with ornamentals. Horticultural skill and knowledge, once almost exclusively passed down from one generation of farmers to the next, has increasingly, over the latter half of the twentieth century, been acquired through formal post secondary education at agricultural colleges and universities, or through self study books, periodicals, etc. In the last several years advances in computer-related electronic technologies, have coincided with a burgeoning demand for traditional non-traditional continuing education in practically all fields including horticulture. The Internet has become a vast resource of horticulture-related information for professional as well as amateur horticulturists, including, for example, Webs sites offering plant identification databases, amateur groups in practically any imaginable gardening specialty, botanical gardens, and state university sponsored extension sites. Relatively little, however, in the way of structured computer-assisted learning opportunities have been available to those who wish to take formal coursework in horticultural subjects. Although distance education has been variously portrayed as a boon, a threat, or a hoax with respect to its impact on traditional higher education and extension outreach, it is, in reality still in its infancy. Computer-mediated instructional technology has had a fairly substantial impact as a supplement to traditional F2F courses. However, the "any time, any place" promise of asynchronous distance learning courses contributing substantial credit hours towards undergraduate agriculture-related degrees has not been widely realized. This project will contribute to that goal.



7. Significant Impacts:

The proposed project will strengthen the ties between the horticulture programs at the Agriculture & Technology campuses of the SUNY system and New York States Land Grant institution, Cornell University. It will also foster exchanges between the SUNY system and the Plant Science Department at Alabama A&M University, and eventually other 1890 institutions. Cooperative Extension will gain in that some of the faculty involved in this project have not previously been involved in development of extension programming. With this project they will be able to do so without redistribution of FTEs since the same instructional materials developed for the residential undergraduate student target audiences will be used, with minor modifications, for the extension audiences (professional horticulturist and amateur gardeners). Integration of DL into these programs promises to improve the quality of both academic and extension programming because of the powerful set of pedagogical tools which IT has to offer.



8. Describe the plans for research, assessment, evaluation and dissemination as applicable to the project:

Mudge and Way (1999) have developed a student self-evaluation process for assessing student mastery of hands on grafting skills. Way will continue to be involved as a member of the module D&D teams to develop similar tools, and course evaluation instruments for the instructional modules developed during this project.



9. Broader Impacts:

Lessons learned from the pedagogical research that will be conducted over the course of this project will not only be used to optimize the DL modules developed here, but will also contribute to the growing body of literature on computer-mediated instructional development. The DL module implementation approach, described in this proposal, involving authorship and D&D team coordination by a Horticultural Content Development Specialist will serve as a model for development of additional horticultural DL resources not only the group assembled for this project but also for horticultural educators more broadly.




10. Proposed Timetable:

Month 1: Assembly of module design and development teams including hiring a Horticultural Content Development Specialist

Months 2-9: Module design and development

Month 10-12: Module pilot testing and pedagogical research






11. Project Personnel and Time Commitment:



Mudge, Kenneth, Associate Professor, Department of Floriculture & Ornamental Horticulture (PI, 15% of full time appointment)

Wissert, Joan, Professor, Dept. of Horticulture, SUNY Alfred (PI, 30% of summer, and 5% of 9 month academic appointment)

Head, William, Professor, Dept. of Horticulture, SUNY Morrisville (PI, 30% of summer, and 5% of 9 month academic appointment)

Nelson, Eric, Associate Professor, Dept. of Plant Pathology, Cornell (5% of full time appointment)

Hajek, Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, Cornell (5% of full time appointment)

Kumpf, John, Greenhouse Manager (retired) (20% of 3 month employment period)

Comes, James Faculay, Department of Horticulture, Alfred University (3% of 9 month appointment)

Morales, D, Professor, Department of Horticulture, SUNY Delhi (30% of summer, and 5% of 9 month academic appointment)

Way, D., Office of Learning and Teaching, Cornell (contribution will be part of an overall commitment of Cornells Center for Learning and Teaching, to support academic instruction in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell)

Falkenberg-Getman, Joan, Director Academic Technology Center, Cornell (contribution will be part of an overall commitment of Cornells Academic Technology Center to provide DL Technology support for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell.)

Hennigan, K., Graduate Student, Cornell (25%)

Kathy Sabota, Extension Horticulturist (5%)