field trips that strengthen horticulture education ( Bauerle and Park, 2012 ; Craver and Williams, 2014 ; Nunez, 2020 ; Pritts, 2017 ). Fortunately, active learning in online courses was not new to many horticulture instructors. The Teaching Methods
instructional materials were limited. Some general online peer review repositories for multimedia educational resources for learning and teaching were available, such as MERLOT II ( California State University, 2016 ) or eXtension ( U.S. Department of
teaching more students with fewer resources ( Guri-Rosenbilt, 1999 ). The results of a recent national survey found over 4.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course during the Fall 2008 term, a 17% increase over the previous year
the first part of the study, multiple sections of a lower division horticulture course were used. For the study, teaching mode (online and web-facilitated) were treatments. The population consisted of 239 students enrolled in four sections of this
. (2008) and Lippert et al. (2000) measured pre- and postcourse learning and found it to be the best indicator of teaching quality through online technology. In assessing online courses in the United States, Milliron (2010) targeted clear educational
Hybrid teaching refers to course delivery through a blend of traditional, face-to-face teaching, along with online instruction outside of the classroom ( Hino and Kahn, 2016 ). Incorporating online components can allow educators to reach a greater
The effectiveness of Internet or online training was compared to traditional classroom training in the Master Gardener Core Course/Horticulture 1003 at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. Overall horticultural knowledge was significantly greater for both groups in posttest results, and there was no significant difference in horticultural knowledge between the two groups. Online learners did not perceive the lack of instructor face-to-face interaction to be as important as did classroom participants. Online learners also placed a greater value on flexibility of class time and no commuting. Both groups spent approximately 75 hours on the class. However, 20% of classroom participants' time was commuting. Online training was an effective method for teaching Master Gardeners in this study.
Video clips are a type of interactive multimedia that are often incorporated in Internet based training, and recent studies have reported examples of how cooperative extension is beginning to use Internet technology, including video clips, as part of delivering educational programs online. A survey was designed to determine if Oregon State University Extension Master Gardener volunteers trained in 2001 were able to access a video clip online. Eighty percent of the recent trainees had access to or owned a computer and 93% of this group had access to the Internet. Yet, when asked to access the video clip online only 37% of the respondents were successful. This disparity suggests the need for a seamless interface between the multimedia component and the software required to access it. If the end user is unable to access the multimedia component, it is difficult to justify the additional resources required to develop these teaching tools.
Oral Session 6—Teaching Methods/Human Issues 1 27 July 2006, 4:00–5:45 p.m. Nottoway Moderator: Ann Marie VanDerZanden
computer packages and online course management systems do not support pedagogy required in PBL. Consequently, existing software must be supplemented or new software must be developed to support PBL ( Jonassen, 2002 ). The Problem-solving Learning Portal