32 ORAL SESSION 5 (Abstr. 456–463) Cross-commodity: Education Monday, 24 July, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 noon
Surveys were sent to 53 North American universities offering horticulture curricula to characterize the types of degrees offered, student demographics, participation in distance education, remuneration and assistance available for graduate students, and faculty rank and salary distributions. Twenty-five institutions responded. This represented 10 PhD, 14 MS, and 12 M. Agr. or MS non-thesis professional degree programs in horticulture and 13 PhD, 13 MS, 12 M. Agr. or M. non-thesis degree programs in plant sciences or a closely related area. On average, graduate students were predominantly Caucasian (70.7%), followed by Asian (16.1%), Black (3.2%), Hispanic (2.6%), and Native American (0.2%). Most were supported by research assistantships (56.3%), with the second largest group being self-supported (13.8%). Teaching assistantships were a small source of support (4.6%). Stipends (12-month equivalent) where variable among fellowships ($2000 to $30,000), teaching ($6600 to $25,000), research ($2000 to $25,239), extension ($12,000 to $17,000), or combination assistantships ($900 to $26,000). Most assistantships included a stipend plus in-state and out-of-state tuition waivers: about half included medical insurance. Mean full-time in-state tuition and fees was $6,535, while out-of-state was $13,876. Participation in distance courses was greatest for non-degree students (18.3%), and low for all others (9.2% to 6.4%). The average academic unit had 15.1 professors, 8.9 associate professors, 6.8 assistant professors, 0.3 senior lecturers, and 1.6 lecturers with mean reported average salaries of $85,142; $70,132; $58,918; $55,608; and $37,887, respectively.
be shared across institutions. The Agriculture Interactive Distance Education Alliance (2011) (AG*IDEA) provides shared access to undergraduate and graduate level courses in horticulture and related disciplines for students enrolled through the
153 POSTER SESSION 22 (Abstr. 413–420) Undergraduate Education Wednesday, 26 July, 1:00–2:00 p.m.
HortBase, a global electronic information system to support horticultural decisions in classroom, distance education, life-long learning, and Extension, incorporates three innovative concepts: 1) Three-dimensional-team creation of individual electronic information files (subject, communications, and information science authors collaborating from start-to-fi nish to create the file). Team-creation respects, utilizes and develops professional strengths and resources of each team member. 2) Nation-wide, or even world-wide, distribution of the workload and costs of creation, review, revision, and distribution of the individual electronic information files, rather than redundant individual efforts and expenditures, enables us to do more as a group and to specialize individually. And, 3) National peer review by each file creators' professional society (ASHS, ACE, and ASIS respectively) enhances information quality, continued professional development of the authors, and wider acceptance and use of the information. Capabilities of electronic information systems facilitate, indeed require, this new approach to information development and delivery. For additional information, http://forages.css.orst.edu/HortBase/.
Learning style preferences may impact the success of on-line students in distance education courses. In this study, students from four on-line courses voluntarily completed a modified learning styles assessment instrument. Students attaining a course average of 90% or greater were considered to have excelled in their respective course. The results from these learners were compared to those of students with lower course averages. It was determined the students that excelled in these on-line courses were visual learners that preferred more images and diagrams than textual references and instructions. This was confirmed by their choice of a map rather than written instructions to a new location when compared to their peers. In addition, they were more likely to prefer a class where they used visual skills rather than auditory skills than their peers. The high-performing students were also more likely to lose points on a timed test due to not reading the written information carefully, while their peers with lower course averages were more likely to run out of time on the test. Recognizing these learning style differences may allow faculty to design courses that better suit their on-line students.
An assessment was conducted for our departmental internship class (HORT 2010) for 1999–2003. With rare exceptions, all students majoring in Horticulture must complete 3 credits of HORT 2010, based on 480 hours of approved work, reports, a seminar, and evaluations. The course is graded pass/fail. An internship requirement was added to the Landscape Contracting major in 2000–01. Enrollment in HORT 2010 was greatest among students in the Turf Management option (TURF) in 3 of 5 years. Over the 5-year period, females averaged 27% of the enrollment in HORT 2010, in part because there was only one female TURF student. The mode for earned hours completed just before the semester of enrollment in HORT 2010 was 97, thus classing the typical intern as a rising Senior. Only 8% of the interns failed to graduate. A total of 126 students interned at 109 different sites, with 70% interning within Oklahoma. Four Oklahoma employers accounted for 23% of all internship employment. Feedback has led to documented program improvements, e.g., `Bilingual Horticultural Communications' was made available on campus via distance education in Spring, 2001; `Turfgrass Integrated Pest Management' was created and added to the TURF option sheet for 2001-2002; and `Personnel and Financial Management for Horticulture' was created and approved in 2005. In a 2000 alumni survey, 100% of responding, employed Horticulture alumni (19 of 19) rated their internship as helpful. The program has worked well and has contributed to student success.
Abstract
Muskmelon (cantaloupe), Cucumis melo L., lines W1, W3, W4, W5, and W6 released by the Southern and Northeastern Regions, Agricultural Research, Science and Education Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture represent multidisease-resistant advanced breeding lines with high-quality attributes suited to the development of cultivars for long-distance shipping as well as for small farm and home garden production. They were selected under severe epiphytotie conditions in South Texas for resistance to downy mildew, Pseudoperonospora cubensis (Berk.) Rostow.; powdery mildew, Sphaerotheca fuliginea (Schlecht. ex Fr.) Poll.; Alternaria leaf-blight, Alternaria cucumerina (Ell. & Ev.) Elliot; and watermelon mosaic virus 1 (WMV-1). In extensive, replicated, repeated field studies, these lines were consistently found to possess a high level of resistance to all of these diseases, enabling production of a marketable crop under severe disease stress, often without application of fungicides. W4, W5, and W6 exhibit a higher level of resistance to dow ny mildew and Alternaria leaf-blight than do the more moderately resistant W1 and W3 lines. All 5 lines are highly resistant to powdery mildew and have excellent resistance to natural infections of WMV-1.
With the current climate of consolidation in academia, maintaining viable discipline-oriented curricula requires concerted effort. In the past 8 years, the horticulture program at Texas Tech reduced the number of degree programs and faculty while it increased the course offerings available and quadrupled the enrollment in horticulture courses. This increase in productivity and program security came about through the efforts of the College and the Department. The designation of the Introductory Horticulture course as a core curriculum lab science elective dramatically raised enrollment. The introduction of horticulture as a minor within the College and across the University resulted in many of the horticulture courses being accessed by students previously not reached. In addition, efforts to create articulation agreements with and actively recruit students from 2- year institutions are beginning to show some success. The greatest future impact appears to be in the creation of mutually beneficial distance education alliances with other 2- and 4-year institutions. Areas of continued concern include balancing faculty teaching and research loads, frequency of upper level course offerings, and identifying large classroom facilities during peek hours. Support facility space utilization, pressing time constraints and “faculty burn-out” are also current problem areas associated with increased faculty productivity levels.
116 ORAL SESSION 29 (Abstr. 580–588) Undergraduate Education