Create elearning in NIFA Challenge Areas to Transform Education of Controlled Environment Animal Production (ECEAP) for Sustainability

<p>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:<br/> The proposed project will create new eLearning modules in NIFA challenge areas related to animal production. Animal farms are evolving toward larger and more concentrated operations and facing significant challenges that affect their viability and sustainability. Climate change concerns, animal welfare issues, and increasing energy cost heighten the challenges. Research has been conducted to develop knowledge-based and technological solutions to the emerging critical challenges. However, current educational curricula at most land-grant universities on environmental control of animal facilities have not yet incorporated these research findings. The only textbook in this topic was published 23 years ago and existing curricula are outdated. The animal industry needs a trained workforce and professionals with knowledge and technological competency
to transform these industry challenges into opportunities to make animal production sustainable. This project will develop eLearning curricula on Controlled Environment Animal Production (eCEAP) for addressing the aforementioned emerging challenges. The specific objectives and approaches are to: (1) develop new eLearning modules, (2) establish an eCEAP online platform for material exchange and innovative delivery; (3) write a digital textbook on eCEAP for sustainability; (4) develop and conduct faculty training workshops on the new eLearning modules and delivery methods; and (5) develop and offer experiential-learning workshops and internships for minority students. Evaluation will be an integral part of the project. Student and faculty competence evaluation will be designed and embedded into the eLearning modules. Quality Matter on-line curriculum certification (QM,
http://www.qmprogram.org/) will be conducted. The impact of the project products on student recruitment, retention, and placement will be assessed. The project will address the NIFA Challenges of climate change, food safety and security, and sustainable energy. It meets the following educational need areas of the HEC program: (1) curriculum design and materials development, (2) instructional delivery systems, and (3) increasing faculty teaching competencies. Our experienced multi-institution and multi-disciplinary team and strong support from the participating institutions will ensure success of the project.
<p>APPROACH:<br/> Methods Objective 1. Develop new eLearning modules in NIFA challenge areas. A team member with related expertise, research capacities, and experiences will lead development of the module(s). Each module will include: PowerPoint presentations with key point narration; recorded presentations; reading materials; in-class assignments or exercises; a database of quizzes and exams, video clips on demonstrations, labs, and tours; and an evaluation test. The other team members will be co-developers or internal reviewers of the modules. Objective 2. Establish an online platform for educational material exchange and distance delivery of CEAP content A website "eCEAP" will be developed to provide cyber spaces for module development and upload, content delivery, and interactions among students and faculty. After the module content is finalized by the project co-PIs,
Dr. Rhoades and her graduate student will edit, review, and compile the finalized module content to form the on-line teaching modules. All online materials and e-text will be developed in accordance with the Quality Matters (QM) Program standards. Objective 3--Write a digital textbook of "eCEAP for Sustainability" The project team is dedicated to develop a digital textbook "eCEAP for Sustainability" with updated fundamental sections and new chapters on emerging NIFA challenges related to animal production. Project members who are responsible for development of the specific teaching modules will ultimately also be responsible to write the e-textbook chapter(s). If special expertise beyond the existing team is needed to address a specific topic better, the project team will be open to invite peers that have the needed expertise to contribute to the e-textbook chapter as co-authors.
Objective 4--Faculty training on the new eLearning materials and delivery methods The faculty professional training will be developed by the PI and co-PIs Dr. Christy and Dr. Rhoades with professional support of the OSU University Center for the Advancement of Teaching. The training topics will include but not be limited to: (1) course design and embedded evaluation; (2) development of eLearning modules; (3) how to use the online platform, (4) how to write a digital textbook, and (5) how to evaluate the effectiveness of the eLearning materials. Objective 5--Develop and offer experiential learning workshops and interships for underrepresented, minority, and female students. At OSU, Dr. Zhao will collaborate with the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) in the College of Engineering (see the letters of support) to reach out to the minority students, piggybacking on the MEP's PREFACE
summer bridge program. A series of five 2-hr experiential learning workshops on environmental control of living systems will be introduced to freshman minority students. At NCSU, one underrepresented minority (URM) student will be recruited in each project year to conduct a four-week summer research internship. The site PI, Dr. Wang-Li will mentor the students on the summer research internship projects. At UI, Dr. Wang will collaborate with the Research Apprentice Program to develop and offer hands-on experiential learning workshops for underrepresented minority high school students. At NCAT, Dr. Noble will collaborate with Dr. Zhao and Dr. Wang-Li to develop a one-week summer experiential learning workshop for their students on NIFA challenges related to animal production. Evaluation Plans Assessment of the new eLearning Materials Student Evaluation. Student learning outcomes affected
by the new eLearning materials will be assessed by establishing control groups and treatment groups at team universities. Embedded competency assessment tools for the eLearning modules will be designed by team faculty. Baseline assessment of student learning will begin after instructors have participated fully in this training program but before instituting the eLearning modules for the courses. This will provide control group data to compare against the performance of students who will be receiving instruction via the new eLearning modules in later project years. The results of these embedded competency tests will be used to improve the eLearning materials. Faculty Evaluation. Evaluation of team faculty and faculty users and reviewers will be collected using an on-line survey and a focus group interview during the annual faculty training. First, we will ask for their specific feedback
on each module in terms of the content quality and accuracy, the degree the educational objectives are met, and need for new and experiential learning materials. Secondly, we will collect data from the faculty on what modules they used, class size, effects of the eLearning modules on reduction of their class preparation time, and increase in interaction with peers in improving their teaching. Assessment of the on-line platform and digital textbook delivery Student Evaluation. The effectiveness of the new digital delivery technologies: on-line platform and digital textbook, will be assessed through educational research study by co-PI Rhoades. Following the model of quasi-experimental (Campbell and Stanley, 1963) design, a control and treatment experimental design will be used. The control group will be students attending traditional face-to-face lecture classes. The treatment groups are
students using (1) the on-line platform delivery, (2) online platform with digital textbook in standard ePub format, and (3) online platform with digital textbook in interactive multi-media iBook format. A specific knowledge and skill competence test and a questionnaire on student perceptions, preferences, technology enhanced learning, ease of use, and convenience of learning will be designed and conducted as pre- and post-tests. Data analysis will allow the PIs to evaluate the full effectiveness of the teaching technologies. The results will be published in peer reviewed journal articles. Faculty Evaluation. Faculty perceptions, experiences, and effectiveness in using the new delivery technology will be assessed through an on-line survey and focus group interviews. The evaluation results will be used to refine faculty training and improve the technology adoption. Assessment of
workshops and internships for minority students The effectiveness of the experiential learning workshops will be evaluated using pre- and post-tests on specific knowledge and skills based on the specific workshop objectives. Surveys will be conducted for assessment of student awareness of career options in food and agricultural sciences and engineering. At each university, the program coordinator of the minority program will track the participating students' academic major selection, graduation, and placement, and those data will be compared to a cohort of non-experiential learning under-represented minority students. The effectiveness of the summer research internship will be established by interviewing students about their experiences in conducting undergraduate research, and by recording the numbers of posters and presentations made by students at symposiums and conferences. The
number of minority students served each year at each of the team institutions will be reported.