Project Summary:

Principal Investigator/Project Director:

• Alfred J Turgeon, Penn State

Description of the Agricultural Communication Network Project:

1. Project Objectives:


• Make optimal use of available resources for agricultural extension, resident education, and research by sharing resources between participating institutions.
  
  
• Train students 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.
  
  The learning resources produced through this project can be accessed individually, in groups, or in their totality to support a broad array of resident, extension, or distance educational programs. For web-based instruction, one could simply link to them from other web sites at which specific educational goals and objectives are articulated. Instructors could also print these materials or do selective screen captures to develop 35-mm slides or overhead transparencies for use in face-to-face instruction. Likewise, students could use these materials to acquire information, assimilate knowledge, develop and illustrate reports, or support specific conclusions or proposed courses of action. On another level, learners can also be teachers through their subsequent efforts to improve, expand, and update specific modules, lessons, and cases. Additionally, although professional career training is thought to begin at the post-secondary educational level, access to learning resources in high school or earlier can introduce students to a wide array of future career options and set the stage for improved academic preparation through an emphasis on basic and applied sciences, mathematics, communications, group interaction, problem solving, and critical thinking.
  
  


2. Description of Agricultural Communication network to be developed or utilized.

The Agricultural Communication Network to be developed/utilized in this project is the World Wide Web, with the primary server containing learning resources located at the Center for Academic Computing at Penn State University. The URL at which these learning resources can/will be found is: http://www.cas.psu.edu/docs/casdept/turf/education/directory.html

The learning resources currently accessible at this site include 51 instructional modules, 29 lessons, and 12 decision cases. There are also several dozen historical cases under development that will be organized in a keyword-accessible case database at this site. This inventory of learning resources will be enhanced and new resources added until turfgrass science and management have been covered satisfactorily with respect to the entire range of climatic, edaphic, economic, and cultural conditions existing in North America. Subsequently, a second phase of the project will be directed at internationalizing the learning resources to extend their use to other continents.

Proposed modifications of existing learning resources and suggested elements for the development of new learning resources will be submitted to the project leader either electronically or by mail from groups located at or associated with the participating institutions and organizations. Personnel at Penn State will be responsible for scanning and organizing photographs, photomicrographs, illustrations, and other materials received from cooperators. Narrative text and other descriptive information will be matched with the appropriate graphics, inserted into hypertext documents, and organized into modules. Once they are available at a web site, the new or modified modules will be systematically reviewed and approved by a steering committee composed of representatives of the participating institutions and organizations. The steering committee will be periodically reorganized to include new participants and ensure that all stakeholders are adequately represented.





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.)

While computers are becoming more widespread in homes, workplaces, libraries, schools, and other locations, many places, especially private homes of low-income families, still do not have them. The recent development of low-cost computers should result in greater access as low-income families are better able to afford them. A powerful impetus for acquiring computers will be the access to effective learning resources and the opportunities they provide for career development and income enhancement. For those students who do not have computers in the home, however, school- and library-based computers should at least partially compensate.

3. Agricultural Communication Network Programming:


• Agronomy
  
• Entomological Science
  
• Plant Pathology
  
• Plant Science
  
  
  Describe the Programming and how it will contribute to achieving the Objective(s):
  
  Graphic-intensive, web-accessible, knowledge-based instructional modules covering various aspects of turfgrass science and management have been used effectively to support both formal and non-formal instructional programs. When used in conjunction with face-to-face instruction, they free the instructor from the burden of having to "cover the material" and thus permit other classroom activities, including those directed at developing students' problem-solving or critical-thinking skills. When used as part of distance educational programs, they set the stage for productive interaction among students, and between the students and their instructors, through electronic communication. The enormous cost of producing these types of instructional modules has been the principal factor limiting their development. Once developed, however, they should be used as widely as possible to justify their initial cost. The production and availability (via the World Wide Web) of comprehensive sets of instructional modules, however, does not ensure that they will be adequate to address the needs of a geographically distributed audience. Environmental and cultural differences within the United States and beyond may limit their use outside of the specific geographic area in which they were developed. Thus, a program for modifying existing sets of instructional modules, along with creating additional ones, to ensure that they address the broad range of climatic, edaphic, economic and social conditions encountered within North America (and later extending to other continents) would substantially enhance their instructional value and extend their use. Such a program should also extend the ownership of the modules to a large community of users who would then share the responsibility for their continuous improvement and updating. It would also establish a precedent to encourage other educational communities to work together on projects directed at creating community-owned instructional modules and other learning resources to support their common needs.

  Activities directed at developing students' problem-solving or critical-thinking skills often include the use of problem-based learning resources. Just as knowledge-based learning resources can be organized in modular form, problem-based resources can be modularized as practicums and case studies. Practicums range from sets of simple statements or questions posing scientific puzzles or technological problems to detailed descriptions of complex problematic situations. Case studies are problematic situations dominated by human activity systems (i.e., occurring in an operational context in which people are an important part of the problematic situation). The two principal types of case studies are decision cases and historical cases. Decision cases are incomplete narratives that take the reader to the point at which a decision must be made. Because decision cases require detailed analyses of problematic situations and the subsequent development and evaluation of solution strategies as decision options, they are of enormous instructional value. Historical cases are complete narratives of problematic situations that include decisions made and their outcomes. Their instructional value is in illustrating the cause-and-effect relationships occurring in problematic situations with satisfactory (as well as less-than satisfactory) resolutions. Thus, they can be very helpful when used in conjunction with decision cases at times when various decision options are being explored. When historical cases are linked to knowledge-based instructional modules, the combination covers both cause-and-effect relationships and the scientific bases for those relationships. And use of these learning resources is not limited to simulated problems presented in decision cases; they can be of value in supporting just-in-time learning when addressing problematic situations encountered in one's professional work. Problem-based instructional modules that have already been developed and field-tested will support resident, extension, and distance educational programs of the user community and will serve as models for the development of new modules by that same community.



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

Program production varies with the particular learning resource. For graphic-intensive instructional modules, new illustrations will be drawn, scanned, colorized, labeled, and organized into new modules, or inserted into existing modules, along with narrative text. As lessons are developed around instructional modules, new lessons will be developed or existing ones modified in conjunction with module development. For decision cases, narrative text, along with exhibits (e.g., photographs, illustrations, charts, graphs, tables), will be assembled, organized into hierarchical sets of interconnecting HTML documents, and added to the existing inventory. While production methods are fairly routine and can easily be handled by project personnel at Penn State, the acquisition of original materials for use in the production process is not. This is the real value of the initial network of professionals engaged in the project. By marshalling the subject-matter expertise and scholarly efforts of the cooperators, the inventory of learning resources will be dramatically improved and expanded. And by the example they set, the broader community of beneficiaries and contributors will be brought into the network.

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

The audience served by these learning resources will be large and diversified. Included will be educators and students at academic institutions from around the world who wish to take advantage of these resources in their teaching, or to benefit from them in their learning. Also included will be current and would-be professionals in all aspects of the turfgrass industry, including superintendents and other personnel at golf courses and athletic-field complexes, commercial lawn-case operators, and agribusiness personnel serving the turfgrass industry. Agribusiness personnel new to the turfgrass industry might view the learning resources as a means by which to acquire the technical competence needed to better address the needs of their clientele. Similarly, private consultants might view these learning resources as a means to expand their technical competence and to help their clientele master the elements of successful turfgrass management. Finally, personnel from outside the turfgrass industry looking for a model of community owned and utilized learning resources would be expected to examine these resources and the system by which they were created and maintained. Within this vast community of learners, users would encompass both beginning students and experienced educators. New students would probably be attracted to the knowledge-based instructional modules first, then to the problem-based learning modules beginning with the simplest and extending to the more complex, including case studies. Experienced professionals might be attracted to the case database via the keyword-access system when exploring decision options for addressing problems encountered in the field. This could lead them to selected instructional modules as they attempt to gain a better understanding the cause-and-effect relationships evident in the problems or problematic situations.

5. Collaborating Institutions and Other Partners:

Washington State University (contact: Dr. Gwen Stahnke, Associate Professor of Turfgrass Science, Puyullap, WA)
University of California (contact: Dr. Victor Gibeault, Professor and Extension Turf Specialist, Riverside, CA)
Clemson University (contact: Dr. Bert McCarty, Professor of Turfgrass Science, Clemson, SC)
University of Florida (contact: Dr. Albert Dudeck, Professor of Turfgrass Science, Gainesville, FL)
United States Golf Association – Green Section (contact: Mr. James Snow, National Director, Golf House, NJ)
Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (contact: Ms. Deena Amont, Director of Learning Systems Innovation and Design, Lawrence, KS)



6. Additional Rationale for Project:

Easy access to learning resources can provide "just-in-time" learning for the professional who "needs to know something when he or she needs to know it." A continually updated array of web-based learning resources can provide the field professional with the wherewithal to quickly assimilate knowledge from a home- or work-based computer, or from a hotel room when traveling.



7. Significant Impacts:

There will be two impacts: one for a particular segment of the agricultural community and one for the entire community. The first will be felt by the turfgrass industry, including managers of golf courses, athletic field facilities, lawn-care operations, and institutional and commercial landscape-maintenance operations, as well as agribusiness personnel serving this industry. The second impact will be through the example set by a comprehensive system of continually evolving learning resources established through this project.



8. Describe the plans for evaluation, dissemination and assessment:

Through Division C-5 (Turfgrass Management Division) of the Crop Science Society of America, we will initially promote the use, and then conduct a comprehensive evaluation, of these learning resources. A quantitative assessment instrument will be electronically distributed to C-5 members to obtain their reaction to the learning resources and solicit suggestions for improvement. Focus groups will also be conducted at annual C-5 meetings to gain greater insight into opportunities for improvement, as well as encourage the involvement of the members in contributing to those improvements.



9. Broader Impacts:

The project will contribute significantly to promoting the concept of a learning community in which members function as both beneficiaries of and contributors to a comprehensive system of learning resources. As access to these learning resources will require only a computer connected to the internet and a desire to learn, persons with disabilities and minorities will have unrestricted opportunities to share in the benefits of this expanding learning network. And the opportunity to contribute will be available to all those willing to take advantage of it.



10. Proposed Timetable:

SEP-DEC99 Conduct review of learning resources (modules, lessons and cases).
JAN-AUG00 Collect and process graphics, exhibits, and text for modifying existing and developing new learning resources.
SEP-DEC00 Engage C-5 membership in learning-resource promotion and evaluation while continuing work on modifications and new development.
JAN-AUG01 Complete modification and development work.
>AUG01 Sustain efforts with funding obtained from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, United States Golf Association, Professional Lawn Care Association of America, and other organizations.



11. Project Personnel and Time Commitment:



Al Turgeon (Penn State Univ.) 25
Graphic artist/web master (Penn State Univ.) 75
Gwen Stahnke (Washington State Univ.) 05
Al Dudeck (Univ. Florida) 05
Vic Gibeault (Univ. California) 05
Bert McCarty (Clemson Univ.) 05



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