Source: UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AT MAYAGUEZ submitted to NRP
ONLINE TUTORING TO PROVIDE ANIMAL SCIENCES STUDENTS WITH TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1026800
Grant No.
2021-70004-35093
Cumulative Award Amt.
$149,998.00
Proposal No.
2021-03323
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Aug 1, 2021
Project End Date
Jul 31, 2025
Grant Year
2021
Program Code
[DEG]- Distance Education Grants for Insular Areas
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AT MAYAGUEZ
P. O. BOX 9000
MAYAGUEZ,PR 00681
Performing Department
Animal Science
Non Technical Summary
Learning experiences in our College of Agricultural Sciences rely mostly on undergraduate research while non research-oriented students have limited opportunities for their professional development. In addition, graduate teaching assistants teach laboratory courses with no previous teaching experience. This project will engage students in online tutoring as an approach to improve the readiness of animal science's students to compete in the job market and to improve education of laboratory courses. Tutoring can help students improve their transferable skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, leadership, time management, organization, effective communication and teamwork. Therefore, this project is designed to offer upper-level undergraduate students (junior and seniors) an experience in teaching by servicing as online tutors. In addition, mentoring and online seminars by USDA-APHIS personnel will be prepared to educate and provide students with other life experiences. Some tutors will be provided the opportunity to travel to a professional meeting during the summer and nine other students will have similar opportunities locally. The proposed activities will increase transferable skills in our students, their academic performance, and will better teaching of laboratory courses.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
3053410102015%
3033410108010%
3053310102015%
3033310108010%
3053510102015%
3033510108010%
3053610102015%
3033610108010%
Knowledge Area
303 - Genetic Improvement of Animals; 305 - Animal Physiological Processes;

Subject Of Investigation
3610 - Sheep, live animal; 3310 - Beef cattle, live animal; 3510 - Swine, live animal; 3410 - Dairy cattle, live animal;

Field Of Science
1080 - Genetics; 1020 - Physiology;
Goals / Objectives
• To create an online-tutoring service for undergraduate students in animal sciences.• Provide junior and senior students with online tutoring experiences to offer a different type of experiential learning.• To improve understanding of animal science topics and knowledge retention in upper-level undergraduate students.• To increase professional networking opportunities for our students• To improve education of the laboratory portion of animal science's undergraduate courses
Project Methods
Undergraduate students, junior or senior, will be selected to offer online-tutoring to other animal sciences students. Microsoft Teams and Moodle, which are official online tools of the University of Puerto Rico, will be used to create the spaces for synchronic online-tutoring. The PD will instruct the selected tutors in distance education and in learning management systems (i.e., Moodle, Microsoft Teams). Tutors will be required to spend at least 15 hours weekly helping other undergraduate students. Tutors will also receive mentoring and academic advising by faculty members teaching upper-level courses such as Animal Physiology, Nutrition, Behavior, Reproduction, etc. to help them in case they need advice on how to explain some topics. Furthermore, tutors will complete a survey to measure how tutoring help them improve their knowledge retention and transferable skills. Also, tutors will complete a pre- and post-tutoring test to measure their knowledge on the various disciplines of animal sciences.At the end of each year, two tutors will be selected to attend the annual meeting of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture, or another scientific meeting. An education-type poster presentation will be used to demonstrate the student experiences while tutoring with distance education technology.During the Spring semester of every year, personnel from USDA-APHIS, will give an online seminar to the tutors. The seminar will include life experiences as undergraduate that helped them achieve their goals and also to talk about job opportunities in the animal industry.

Progress 08/01/23 to 07/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Undergraduate students and faculty from the Department of Animal Science. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The four students learned basics to create educational videos. These students participated in the previous year so there there was no need to train them in the use of Microsoft TEAMS for the tutoring program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?An additional group of two or three students from the Department of Animal Science will be selected for the tutor's positions and will be train in online learning platforms. This year, the students will be available for tutoring sessions but mainly they will dedicate effort to create educational videos that explain complicated topics related to animal sciences. Also, tutor students will be supervised randomly during sessions. These students will also participate in USDA career development activities.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The website for the tutoring program was updated with the contact information of the new cohort of tutors. This new cohort of four students were made available as tutors for courses in animal sciences. In addition, we started creating instructional videos related to animal sciences topics as an alternative to tutoring sessions.

Publications


    Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Undergraduate students and faculty from the Department of Animal Science. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Five undergraduate students were trained in the use of Microsoft TEAMS for the tutoring program. Also, students participated in discussions related to emotional intelligence and the importance of being involved in extracurricular undergraduate activitities to enhance their professional development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?A third group of five students from the Department of Animal Science will be selected for the tutor's positions and will be train in online learning platforms. Also, tutor students will be supervised randomly during sessions. Personnel from USDA will give a presentation to the tutors about career development and opportunities. Also, similar to the previous year, students will be involved in discussions related to emotional intelligence.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? The website for the tutoring program was updated with the contact information of the new cohort of tutors. This new cohort of five students served as tutors for courses in animal sciences. The students learned the use of the institutional learning management platform, which they used for the tutoring program. These students also participated in a workshop to learn and discuss about the importance of emotional intelligence. Also, students participated in a seminar presented by a veterinarian from USDA-APHIS Veterinary Services.

    Publications


      Progress 08/01/21 to 07/31/22

      Outputs
      Target Audience:Undergraduate students and faculty from the Department of Animal Science. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Five undergraduate students were trained in the use of Microsoft TEAMS for the tutoring program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? A second group of five students from the Department of Animal Science will be selected for the tutor's positions and will be trained in online learning platforms. Also, tutor students will be supervised randomly during sessions. Personnel from USDA will give a presentation to the tutors about career development and opportunities.

      Impacts
      What was accomplished under these goals? A website for the tutoring program was created and updated as needed with information about the tutors and opportunities. A group of five students served as tutors for courses in animal sciences. Minor equipment was purchased (five mobile computers, six document type web cameras) were acquired. The students were trained in the use of the institutional learning management platform.

      Publications