ERIC EJ840146: Technology Enhanced Agricultural Education Learning Environments: An Assessment of Student Perceptions

2007·0.13 MB·English

by  ERIC

TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION LEARNING
ENVIRONMENTS: AN ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT PERCEPTIONS

Antoine J. Alston, Associate Professor
North Carolina A&T State University
Chastity Warren English, Assistant Professor
North Carolina A&T State University

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Web-enhanced
agricultural education pedagogy as perceived by students in a collegiate agricultural education
program. Overall, respondents agreed there were many benefits to Web-enhanced courses and
perceived all Web site components under study to be very useful. It was recommended that Web-
enhanced instruction be increasingly utilized in agricultural education settings in order to
encourage learning, increase problem-solving skills, and increase technological literacy.

Introduction to enhance on-campus traditional courses,
without full knowledge of the benefits of
The educational field has witnessed this addition. Universities have made
many profound changes over the past few significant investments in course
decades. Traditional educational models management platforms, expanding
have emphasized a teacher-centered networks, staff training and support systems,
environment in which the majority of all in an attempt to transition traditional
information is disseminated through the courses to more Web-enhanced formats
teacher (Simonson & Thompson, 1997). (Park, 2003). According to Goldberg
With today’s highly technological society, (1997), and Wheeler and Jarboe (2001), the
this mode of education has come under great combination of online activities and
scrutiny with many educational traditional classroom instruction has become
professionals and legislators calling for the most popular way to use Internet
change. Educators and other related teaching tools. Wheeler and Jarboe
professionals across the nation have started identified that students with access to
to realize the importance of having students traditional instruction and a Web-based
become independent thinkers, explore learning environment, do better overall than
complex problems, and apply the knowledge students who are taught entirely with one of
to real-life situations (Simonson & the aforementioned methods. Kahn (2000)
Thompson). According to Simonson and found that Web enhancement incorporates
Thompson, many experts in the field of the best of two worlds: efficiency of student
education recognize technology as an administration and an enjoyable, flexible
essential component to support this new learning environment that infuses diversity
wave of thought sweeping the academic of learning styles.
world.
More than 1,000 universities today offer Web-based Learning
courses utilizing the Web in the United The World Wide Web provides a
States (Wingard, 2004). The advantages of powerful new resource for education in
Web-based instruction for institutions of agriculture and the life sciences (O’Kane &
higher learning include having a wider array Armstrong, 1997). Instruction delivered
of course offerings available in addition to through technological means has been
being time or location feasible (Wingard). shown to be effective in disciplines such as
Over the past few years many universities microbiology, anatomy, engineering and
have begun to utilize Web-based instruction medical science (Fasce, Ramirez, & Ibanez,
Journal of Agricultural Education 1 Volume 48, Number 4, 2007
Alston & Warren Technology Enhanced Agricultural…
1995; Inglis, Fu, & Kwokchan, 1995; Jones learning can be assessed via the Internet. A
& Kane, 1994; Tothcohen, 1995). According major advantage of assessing via the Internet
to Murphy and Boyd (2000), computer is the ability to provide instant feedback to
based instruction has been utilized to teach the student. The content delivery component
subject matter in the areas of farm safety, focuses on the communication of course
landscape design and construction. content and online learning activities. As
While distance education has been the with the traditional instructional
predominant focus of the literature, environment, learning is strongly impacted
instructional technology utilization in the by the teacher’s ability to communicate the
traditional classroom must not be subject matter. The community component
overlooked. Murphy and Terry (1998) addresses the sense of community among
stated that the opportunities are numerous learners, and between learners and teachers.
for agricultural educators to utilize The quality of the online course depends on
instructional technology in their daily task. the established learning community (Seabolt
Utilizing Delphi techniques, Murphy and & Arends, 2000). According to Peters,
Terry conducted a nationwide study to Nutter, and Toto (2000), the key to a
develop consensus and provide focus for successful online community is that teachers
future research concerning the adoption of create good questions and case studies.
electronic communication, information and Communication tools in an online
imaging technologies for instructional use in environment can be characterized as either
agricultural education settings. One of the synchronous or asynchronous.
major objectives of the study was to gauge
agricultural educators opinions in relation to Problem Statement
the positive effects they feel electronic The National Research Council (1988)
technologies will have upon agricultural in the book Understanding Agriculture,
education instruction. Responses tended to emphasized that in order for agricultural
lean toward the following four areas: (1) an education to remain viable, educators should
increase in the availability of educational emulate the best current programs while
opportunities, (2) improve informational generating new ways to deliver agricultural
resources for faculty and students, (3) more education. In order to keep pace with the
effective instructional materials, and (4) aforementioned change in higher education
more convenient delivery methods for pedagogy, North Carolina A&T State
instructors. University’s Agricultural Education
According to Schmidt (2002), in order to Program began to infuse technology into the
successfully Web-enhance a course, one daily instruction of graduate and
must address the following four undergraduate courses in the Fall semester
components: administration, assessment, of 2000. In making this change, a great
content, and community. An instructor can number of graduate courses were eventually
address one, several, or all components converted to total distance learning delivery,
when developing a Web-enhanced course. while undergraduate instruction began to
The administrative component of courses move toward a more “Web-enhanced”
establishes the foundation for the format. This change forced professors and
organization and administration of the Web- students to become more technologically
enhanced course. The tools of the literate in relation to teaching and learning.
administrative component are designed to What are the benefits of Web-enhanced
increase instructor productivity and learning? What components of the course
efficiency. This component, if designed Web sites do students find useful in relation
correctly, allows a teacher to spend more to their learning?
class time interacting creatively with
students addressing higher level thinking Web-enhanced Course Defined
skills rather than on mundane activities such Web-enhanced courses are traditional,
as distributing materials or collecting face-to-face courses that have successfully
assignments. The assessment component incorporated pedagogically sound uses of
addresses how student performance and Web technology into the design and delivery
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of the course (Center for Electronic Theoretical Framework
Learning, 2003). A Web-enhanced course
uses Web resources to augment on-campus Constructivism provides the theoretical
courses (College of Dupage, 2003). basis for Web-enhanced learning in higher
There are many benefits to creating a education. Constructivism is based on the
Web-enhanced course. One advantage is premise that all individuals construct their
that students are able to refer to online own perspective of the world through
materials anytime, anyplace. Additionally, individual experiences and schema.
instructors have access to a course Constructivism prepares the learner for
roster that is updated daily during the problem solving in ambiguous situations
semester, if desired. The faculty can track (Schuman, 1996). Constructivists believe
students’ activity online, post a syllabus, that “learners construct their own reality or
enter scores in a grade book, and develop at least interpret it based upon their
online quizzes that can be scored perceptions of experiences, so an
automatically. individual’s knowledge is a function of
The following benefits for students one’s prior experiences, mental structures
taking Web-enhanced courses have been and beliefs that are used to interpret objects
found by instructors: and events (Jonasson, 1991, p. 6-7).”
According to Jonasson, what someone
• Working online helps to encourage knows is grounded in perception of the
the development of important physical and social experiences which are
computer skills. comprehended by the mind.
• Online research may be facilitated by In constructivism, students are in control
instructor created links or by of their level of learning. Moreover,
directing students to online library software can be designed to give the learner
resources and research tutorials. options and let them make choices. In Web-
• Students learn to evaluate the enhanced learning, the student learns new
validity of information found on the ways to learn and uses technology to learn.
Internet which aids in developing Software is a tool used to reach learning
critical thinking skills (College of goals, particularly with the use of Internet
Dupage, 2003). based simulations and modeling to conduct
research (Nordhoff, 1999). In a
Other advantages that have been found constructivist environment, the instructor is
with Web-enhanced learning include a facilitator of knowledge guiding the
accessibility, flexibility and communication. learning process. The instructor provides
Accessibility allows students to be cognitive support and must be open-minded
actively engaged in learning, leading to to the needs of individual learners.
greater time on tasks and greater depth of Constructivist learning is an active process,
knowledge. Also, classroom dialogue is achieved through discovery and develops
enabled beyond the time and constraints higher order and socialization skills.
of class time. Flexibility enables students to Constructivist learning is inclined to be
be given more practice with course inductive, from general to the specific. The
materials, with almost instantaneous Internet and multimedia CD’s offer
feedback. Additionally, course materials can nonlinear access to information, and e-mail
be adapted to varying learning styles with and the Internet makes cooperative learning
Web-enhanced courses. Communication in possible.
Web-enhanced environments allows
students to work more collaboratively with Purpose / Objectives
one another, allowing students to examine
their existing conceptions and update or The purpose of this descriptive research
modify them (University College study was to evaluate the effectiveness of
Worchester, 2003). Web-enhanced agricultural education

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Alston & Warren Technology Enhanced Agricultural…
pedagogy. In order to accomplish the the survey, “Usefulness of Web site
aforementioned purpose, the following Components,” consisted of 12 statements
objectives were established: and utilized the following Likert Scale: 1 =
Not Useful, 2 = Somewhat Useful, 3 =
1. To determine the demographic Uncertain, 4 = Useful, 5 = Very Useful.
background of the students under Section three, “Demographics,” measured
study. variables such as age, major, gender and
2. To evaluate the value of selected ethnicity.
benefits of Web-enhanced The validity of the instrument was
agricultural education courses. assessed by a panel of experts consisting of
3. To evaluate the usefulness of various five faculty in instructional technology who
Web site components of agricultural had conducted similar research at North
education Web-enhanced courses. Carolina A&T State University. The
reliability of the instrument was measured
Methodology during a pilot testing of the instrument with
20 agricultural majors not included in this
The population for this descriptive study study who had taken previous Web-
consisted of all students (N = 43) who were enhanced courses in agricultural education.
enrolled in three Web-enhanced The Chronbach’s Alpha reliability
undergraduate agricultural education courses coefficient for sections one and two of the
at North Carolina A&T State University instrument were .85 and .91 respectively.
during the 2002 – 2003 academic year. The Minor grammatical and style changes were
three courses under study were Survey of made to the instrument. The survey
Food and Agribusiness Industry, instrument was administered at the
Introduction to Agriscience Education, and culmination of each course. Students who
History and Philosophy of Agriscience were enrolled in more than one of the
Education in the American Public School courses were not given the instrument more
System. A survey instrument to accomplish than once. All students enrolled in the three
the objectives of the study was developed courses completed the instrument, no
from a review of relevant literature in the instruments were deemed unusable. Data
field of agricultural education and collection took place during May of 2003.
curriculum and instruction. Some particular Readers should take note that the results of
questions regarding the benefits and this study cannot be generalized beyond this
usefulness of course Web sites were adapted study.
from a study conducted by Murphy (2001).
The survey instrument developed by the Findings
researchers consisted of three parts designed
to measure the benefits of Web-enhanced Table 1 presents the demographic
learning, the usefulness of various Web site information collected during the research
components, and background information of study. The mean age was 21 years,
the students. Section one of the survey, with the majority of respondents being
“Benefits of Web-enhanced courses” male. The majority of respondents
consisted of 10 statements and utilized the were Black, and were majoring in
following Likert scale: 1 = Strongly agricultural education, followed by other
Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Uncertain, 4 = majors (animal science and environmental
Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree. Section two of science).

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Table 1
Demographic Profile of Student Respondents
M SD
Age 21.21 4.82

f %
Gender
Female 15 34.9
Male 28 65.1

Ethnicity
Black 32 74.4
White 8 18.6
Other 3 7.0

Major
Agricultural Education 21 48.8
Agribusiness 3 6.9
Agricultural Economics 3 6.9
Other 16 37.4

Table 2 presents the findings concerning technology. Convenience was seen as a
the benefits of Web-enhanced learning. For major benefit to Web-enhanced courses
data analysis purposes the following scale especially in relation to time and
specifications were utilized: 1 – 1.49 = communication with the instructor. Problem
Strongly Disagree, 1.5 – 2.49 = Disagree, solving skills were perceived to be increased
2.5 – 3.49 = Uncertain, 3.5 – 4.49 = Agree, through Web-enhanced learning. Students
4.5 – 5 = Strongly Agree. Having quicker also indicated that Web-enhanced courses
access to grades was the variable that were of a higher quality than traditional
reached the highest level of agreement. lectured based courses and that the Web site
Additionally, students felt that their actually enhanced the face-to-face lectures
awareness of technology was increased in of the instructor. Students also perceived
Web-enhanced courses and that they also that they had more access to course
gained practical experience in using the materials in a traditional classroom setting.

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Table 2
Perceived Benefits of Web-enhanced Courses (N = 43)
Benefits M SD
Student to student communication/interaction is greatly enhanced 4.52 1.23
with the use of Web-enhanced learning.

Quicker access to course grades. 4.37 1.29
More efficient or effective communication between the 4.30 1.28
faculty and students.
Increases my awareness of current technology. 4.14 1.08
More access to course materials than I would have in a traditional 4.14 1.08
classroom setting.
Saves me time. 4.12 1.24
My problems solving skills are enhanced with the use of the Internet 4.09 1.11
in combination with traditional face-to-learning.
The course Web site enhances the instructor’s face-to-face lectures. 4.05 1.25
Web-enhanced courses overall are of higher quality than traditional 4.02 1.16
lectured based courses.
More convenient for me. 4.00 1.36
Note. Scale: 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Uncertain, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree

Table 3 presents the findings concerning Web site components such as the
the usefulness of selected Web site course syllabus, review materials/handouts,
components. For data analysis purposes links to other online resources,
the following scale specifications were multimedia materials, instructor
utilized: Scale: 1 – 1.49 = Not Useful, 1.5 – background information, access to Power
2.49 = Somewhat Useful, 2.5 – 3.49 = Point lectures and online discussion
Uncertain, 3.5 – 4.49 = Useful, 4.5 – 5 = questions were seen as very useful. Web
Very Useful. Respondents indicated that site components such as old test and
components such as the on-line grade practice exams were also seen as very
tool and lecture notes were very useful. useful.

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Table 3
Usefulness of Web site Components (N = 43)
Web site Components M SD
Access to student grades. 4.74 .44

Lecture notes. 4.70 .71

Study sheets, review materials, handouts that may be printed from the 4.70 .46
Web site.

Links to other online information sources. 4.70 .56

Course syllabus 4.65 .48

Presentation materials used in class presentations/demonstrations (e.g. 4.60 .58
PowerPoint Slides).

Contact information/links for the students in the class. 4.60 .73

Multimedia course materials (e.g. audio, video, graphics and/or 4.57 .70
animations).

Practice exams and quizzes. 4.56 .79

Class discussion questions or chat areas. 4.53 .74

Old tests. 4.52 .98

Additional information (background) about the instructor. 4.51 .88
Note. Scale: 1 = Not Useful, 2 = Somewhat Useful, 3 = Uncertain, 4 = Useful, 5 = Very Useful

Conclusions With this said, it appears that collegiate
agricultural courses with Web-enhanced
Overall, students agreed that Web- environments engage students in more in-
enhanced learning increased their depth learning situations, which greatly
awareness of technology, and was an benefits the overall learning achievement
effective means of communication, between and cognition of students.
faculty and students, and student to Students indicated that overall time
student. Constructivist theory emphasizes savings and convenience were major
students creating their own knowledge benefits with Web-enhanced learning.
base and interpretation of knowledge Web-enhanced learning allows students
through active engagement with the consistent access to course materials,
learning environment. In Web-enhanced and allows out of class communication
environments, communication is greatly which enables students to be more
increased by allowing students to work more actively engaged in learning (University
collaboratively, which allows them the College Worchester, 2003). With the time
opportunity to examine their existing savings and convenience of content
interpretations, and update them as needed material access, students in this study
(University College Worchester, 2003). recognized the benefits of Web-enhanced
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Alston & Warren Technology Enhanced Agricultural…
agricultural courses and perhaps take instructional formats in their
advantage of them. pedagogical deliveries, utilizing a
Problem solving skills and the quality of constructivist pedagogical style, thus
the course compared with more traditional enriching the overall learning
settings were factors agreed upon by environment and development of
students. Web-enhanced learning allows the intellectual capital.
development of problem solving skills 2. Place all course materials, including
through the interaction of the student with supplemental materials on the course
Web-based materials in relation to the task Web site to increase overall course
of solving problems presented as course accessibility and flexibility in
assignments. This directly relates to the learning.
constructivist principle of encouraging 3. Incorporate more assignments that
problem solving by placing learners in encourage students to use Web-based
challenging situations, encouraging active resources in collaborative groups,
engagement through discovery and the thus encouraging problem solving,
development of higher order and increasing technological literacy, and
socialization skills. Additionally, the improving socialization skills, ideals
students’ perception of the course being which directly relate back to the
more challenging than traditional formats combination of Web-enhanced
relates to the constructivist principle of learning when combined with
instructors being facilitators of knowledge, constructivist principles.
guiding the learning process, and providing
cognitive support which in all provides for a Implications
more enriched learning environment
(Nordhoff, 1999). Given this finding Web- Technology has greatly impacted the
enhanced learning could be a pedagogical global society economically, politically, and
technique agricultural professors could socially, and the field of education is no
utilize to stimulate higher order cognition. exception. Agricultural education as a
Students indicated that the course discipline and colleges of agriculture must
syllabus, lecture notes, grade tool, increasingly adapt to technological change,
communication tools in the course Web p articularly in daily instruction in order to
site, and review materials were the most more effectively prepare the world’s future
useful components. Perhaps the overall agricultural leaders.
Web site motivates students to take more
interest in their learning. Nordoff (1999) References
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ANTOINE J. ALSTON is an Associate Professor and Coordinator in the Department of
Agribusiness, Applied Economics, and Agriscience Education at North Carolina A&T State
University, 251 Carver Hall-1601 East Market Street, Greensboro, NC, 27411. E-mail:
[email protected].

CHASTITY WARREN ENGLISH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agribusiness,
Applied Economics, and Agriscience Education at North Carolina A&T State University, 251
Carver Hall- 1601 East Market Street, Greensboro, NC, 27411. E-mail: [email protected].

Journal of Agricultural Education 10 Volume 48, Number 4, 2007