Progress 07/15/07 to 07/14/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The objective of this proposal was to establish a southern region consortium of Universities that would allow coursework and academic programs in agricultural disciplines to be offered across state lines through distance education. After receiving the grant, collaborations with a group of agricultural universities from the Midwest, who also received an HEC grant for similar purposes, resulted in broadening the scope to a national consortium modeled after the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (IDEA) program in Human Sciences. These discussions culminated in the establishment of AG*IDEA (http://www.agidea.org/) in March, 2008, which operates under the umbrella of Great Plains IDEA. Currently, Masters Degree AG*IDEA programs are offered in: Agricultural Education (AE) - Masters Degree Agricultural and Environmental Law (AEL) - Undergraduate Certificate Agricultural Systems Management Tech. (ASMT) - Grad./Undergrad. courses Bioenergy and Sustainable Technology (BST) - Graduate Certificate Food Safety and Defense (FSD) - Graduate Certificate Grassland Management (GM) - Graduate Certificate Horticulture (H) - Graduate Certificate Soil, Water and Environmental Science (SWES) - Masters Degree, Certificate Swine Science Online (SSO) - Undergraduate Certificate The current participating Universities and the programs they participate in include: University of Arkansas - AE, BST Auburn University - AEL, SWES California State University-Chico - AE Clemson University - AE, SWES Colorado State University - AEL University of Florida - AEL University of Georgia - AEL, SWES Iowa State University - ASMT, FSD, GM, SSO Kansas State University - AE, ASMT, BST, FSD, GM, H University of Kentucky - TBD Michigan State University - TBD University of Missouri - AE, ASMT, FSD, SSO Montana State University - AE University of Nebraska-Lincoln - ASMT, FSD, GM, H, SSO North Carolina State University - AE, AEL, H, SWES, SSO North Dakota State University - AEL, ASMT, GM Ohio State University - AEL Oklahoma State University - AE, BST, GM South Dakota State University - AEL, ASMT, BST, GM, SSO Texas Tech University - AE, H, SWES Programs in development include Masters Degrees in Animal Breeding and Animal Science, and Masters Degrees and Certificates in Plant Breeding. In Fall 2012, 153 courses were available to students in eight content areas that lead to a certificate or Master's degree; 60 courses were available to graduate and undergraduate students in two course-share content areas. PARTICIPANTS: Collaborators from the University of Georgia included Jean A. Bertrand, who served as the overall project director, and Josef M. Broder, who served as the representative to the AG*IDEA Board of Directors. Collaborators from North Carolina State University were John Havlin, who served as a contact person for the Agricultural Education program and Gary Moore, leader of the Agricultural Education group. Collaborators from Auburn University were Patricia Curtis and Don Mulvaney who led a study of the feasibility of an AG*IDEA Poultry Science program. Collaborators from Kansas State University were added after the initiation of the project and included Ruth Williams who served as the liaison with Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance. Partner organizations included Clemson University, Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, Michigan Sate University, Montana State University, North Carolina State University, North Dakota State University, Ohio State University, Oklahoma State University, South Dakota State University, Texas Tech University, and the Universities of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska-Lincoln, Auburn University, California State University-Chico. Collaborators include the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance, headquartered at Kansas State University. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences for this grant included undergraduate and graduate students who wish to pursue academic programs in agricultural and related sciences through online education. This includes those who are time and space bound and can only access higher education through online programs, especially those in rural areas. Efforts included the development of the consortium, AG*IDEA, which provided a framework for the delivery of courses and academic programs across state lines in a manner that was seamless for the students. Other efforts included the collaborative development of academic programs that included online courses from multiple institutions in different states. This project offered many faculty members the opportunity to develop an online course for the first time. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: This objective of this project was originally to develop a southeastern consortium for colleges of agriculture to share academic programs and courses across state lines. However, shortly after the grant was awarded, we were approached by a group of Midwestern universities who also received a grant from the Higher Education Challenge Grant program to develop a similar program in the Midwest. Upon learning of our efforts, they invited us to collaborate and broaden the scope to a national agriculture consortium. After approval from USDA, this change was made. In doing so, this new national agriculture consortium, AG*IDEA, was established and arrangements were made for it to be managed by the established Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (GP IDEA), headquartered at Kansas State University, the Lead Institution. In order to provide start-up costs for AG*IDEA, grant funds were redirected from their original purposes of consortium establishment to consortium management. Additional funds were redirected to faculty travel and other program development costs. These changes were all pre-approved by USDA. In summary, these changes allowed the investigators to shift our focus and efforts from establishing the consortium to academic program development and delivery. At the completion of this grant, we are much farther along in our efforts to deliver academic programs across state lines than we originally expected.
Impacts
1. Availability of Academic Programs. AG*IDEA has provided educational opportunities where they did not previously exist by making courses and academic programs available online. The following table shows the growth in course registrations of AG*IDEA. The total number of course registrations for AG*IDEA were 16 (2007), 65 (2008), 68 (2009), 146 (2010), 203 (2011), 318 (2012) and 279 (2013, does not include spring, 2013). Although AG*IDEA did not exist until 2008, a consortium existed among four Midwestern universities starting in 2007 that eventually merged with the southeastern group funded by this grant to become AG*IDEA. 2. Continuation of Academic Programs. Another important impact of AG*IDEA has been the continuation of agricultural academic programs. When the idea of AG*IDEA was conceived in 2006, budgets for colleges of agriculture had been slowly but steadily shrinking over the past 20 years. Unknown at the time, the US economic downturn that followed resulted in a precipitous decline in budgets and loss of faculty capacity at most institutions. Because the framework of the AG*IDEA consortium was in place by 2008, participating universities began developing collaborative programs. The result was that institutions were able to continue to offer academic programs, even though they lost faculty, because they were able to tap faculty at other institutions to teach through distance education. It is likely that a significant number of academic programs in colleges of agriculture would have closed over the last 5 years because of shrinking budgets and lost faculty if AG*IDEA had not been in place. 3. Increased collaborations. The nature of AG*IDEA requires that faculty within a discipline collaborate with peers at other institutions for program development and delivery. The result of this is that bridges have been built across institutions that will likely result in other collaborations related to teaching, research, and extension. 4. Distributed Revenue. All participating members of AG*IDEA are required to charge a "Common Price." Common Price revenues from AG*IDEA affiliated courses are distributed as follows: 75% to the teaching institution; 12.5% to the home institution of the student taking the course, and 12.5% to the Great Plains IDEA lead institution serving as the fiscal agent. A significant amount of revenue has been generated and distributed to participating institutions. For fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012, the amount of revenue distributed to the teaching institutions was $103,230.12, $141,724.02, and $262,573.02, respectively. The amount of revenue distributed to the home institutions was $17,205.02, $23,620.67, and $43,762.17, respectively. The amount of revenue distributed to the lead institution was $17,205.02, $23,620.67, and $43,762.17. In all, the total revenue collected and distributed was $137,640.16, $188,965.36, and $350,097.36 for Fiscal Years 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively.
Publications
- Boland, K. B. Parr, and D. Mulvaney. 2012. Real and Perceived Barriers to Distance Education in Animal Sciences and Other Disciplines. J. Anim. Sci. Volume 90 (Suppl. 3):895.
- Parr B., E. Sewell, M. Kloepper, and D. Mulvaney. 2012. Making the World is Your Stage through Best Practices in Distance Education Through Online Delivery Technologies. J. Anim. Sci. Volume 90 (Suppl. 3):896.
- M. Owens Kloepper, P. Curtis, A. Evert, and E. Zweiacher. 2010. Learning and Sharing Hundreds of Miles Apart, Ahhhh, The Power of Virtual Worlds. NACTA J., www.nactateachers.org/images/stories/NACTA/Conference/2010/Abstract_0 259_Oral.pptx Curtis, P. 2010. Teaching panel on university and industry collaboration. J. Appl. Poult. Res. 19:312-315.
- M. Owens Kloepper, P. Curtis, A. Evert, and E. Zweiacher. 2010. Where is the Chicken Virtual Reality Brings Poultry Science to Community College, Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), Las Vegas, 12/2/2010.
- Mulvaney, D.R., M.O. Kloepper and P.A. Curtis. 2010. Trends in distance education and technologies in higher education: A call for adaptive leadership. J. Anim. Sci. (Volume 88, E-Supplement 2):1072.
- Kloepper, M.O., P.A. Curtis and D.R. Mulvaney. 2010. Use of Soft Chalk to create professional appearing content that will creatively engage students. J. Anim. Sci. (Volume 88, E-Supplement 2):899.
- Mulvaney, D.R., M.O. Kloepper and P.A. Curtis. 2010. Frameworks for learning: a case study of approaches for building capacity for distance education. J. Anim. Sci. (Volume 88, E-Supplement 2):1071.
- Bertrand, J. A. 2009. AG*IDEA: A Consortium for Teaching Courses Across State Lines. 2009. NACTA J. Vol. 53:16, Suppl. 1 (Abstr.)
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Progress 07/15/08 to 07/14/09
Outputs
The objective of this project is to set up a consortium among land-grant universities in the southeastern US to facilitate teaching courses across state lines. This flexibility will promote more efficient use of resources by sharing teaching responsibilities among institutions offering similar academic programs. In addition, smaller academic programs can tap AG*IDEA courses when resources to teach certain courses are not available. Upon receipt of the grant, the scope of the project was broadened to include the entire US. We collaborated with a group already active in the Midwest and AG*IDEA was formed (www.agidea.org) which is an affiliate of Great Plains IDEA. Great Plains IDEA is a consortium formed among Human Science Colleges at Land Grant Institutions. AG*IDEA is open to all institutions who are members of either APS or AASCARR and is overseen by a Board of Directors made up of the APS representative of each member institution. A common tuition price is charged for all AG*IDEA courses. The funding model of AG*IDEA returns 75% of the revenue to the teaching institution and 12.5% to the home institution of the student. The remaining 12.5% is retained for operating the consortium. Kansas State University is the current host institution and houses the management office. Academic courses and programs are delivered through web-based instruction at both the undergraduate and graduate level. To date, 16 universities are full members of AG*IDEA and 13 additional institutions are in the process of joining. The original grant for this project provided funds to establish the overall consortium structure and establish academic programs in Poultry Science and Agricultural Education. By collaborating with an active group in the Midwest, the consortium was formed much more quickly and less expensively than anticipated. Therefore, funds that were in the project originally to provide travel funds for administrators to set up the consortium were redirected to support faculty groups to meet to plan and execute new AG*IDEA academic programs. Programs are currently offered in Agricultural Education, Agricultural Mechanization, Food Safety and Defense, and Grasslands Management. Additional programs are being formed in Agricultural Communications, Agricultural Law, Biobased Products and Bioenergy, Horticulture, Poultry Science, Soil, Water and Environmental Science, and Swine Science. Progress was made on the establishment of Poultry Science plus Egg programs within AG IDEA. After review of an over-arching proposal for graduate level course listing from several member institutions supportive of certifications and or degrees in key Poultry areas, the proposal was modified and expanded into more specific, targeted proposal areas. The Poultry Feed Mill Certificate program has been approved by the AG-IDEA board. The remaining four programs are being modified similar to the frameworks used in the approved Feed Mill proposal and are to be re-submitted in the Fall of 2010. PRODUCTS: The products of this project include a national consortium consisting of 29 institutions in which agricultural academic courses and programs are offered across state lines. Current programs offered include Agricultural Education, Agricultural Mechanization, Food Safety and Defense, and Grasslands Management. OUTCOMES: The outcomes of this project is that academic programs and courses in agriculture and related areas are available to a much broader audience than ever before. The barriers of teaching across state lines have been eliminated and the complications of admissions and tuition have been resolved. The number and scope of these programs will continue to grow, especially in light of reduced state budgets and increased skills to offer distance education courses. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: The Auburn team made informational and promotional presentations about work on the Distance Education Consortium / AG -IDEA project objectives at the 2010 Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS), the 2010 North American Colleges & Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA), the 2010 Joint ADSA-PSA-AMPA-CSAS-ASAS meetings and the National Extension Workshop at the 2009 Poultry Science Association's 98th annual meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina. One PI attended the Ag Law Interest group meeting. Members of the Auburn group have interacted with other proposal program areas including: Ag Ed, Ag Communications, and Agronomy. The SAAS program was a workshop for participants and included the president of AG-IDEA, Dr. Espenshade. In toto, the team reports seven formal professional presentations which include a workshop targeting AG-IDEA and four published abstracts. Workshop presentations and panels included Mulvaney's 2010 presentation on Trends in Distance Education and Technologies in Higher Education at the Dynamics of Distance Education in Agriculture Education Workshop, SAAS Meeting, Orlando, FL, 2/8/10. A paper on the Soil, Water, and Environmental Sciences (SWES) initiative was presented at the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Annual meeting in State College PA on July 2010. A paper will be presented at the SSSA Annual Meeting in Long Beach CA in Nov 2010. The SWES Executive Committee will develop a one-page brochure that can be attached to email communications. We will provide news releases to professional society news magazines, such as CSA News, the news magazine of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America and the Soil Science Society of America. Member universities will advertise the program through announcements and news stories in college newspapers and in press releases to state newspapers and other agriculture related organizations. We will send email announcements to state cooperative extension services, state offices of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and professional associations, such as soil classifiers associations, turfgrass associations, golf course superintendent associations, nursery and landscape associations, certified crop advisors, farmer associations and networks, all of whom maintain email listings. We will also send announcements to state agribusiness councils, environmental departments and health departments. FUTURE INITIATIVES: Additional programs are actively being formed in Agricultural Communications, Agricultural Law, Biobased Products and Bioenergy, Horticulture, Poultry Science, Soil, Water and Environmental Science, and Swine Science. Discussions about programs in other discipline areas are taking place.
Impacts
The impact of this project is that valuable university resources will be able to be used more efficiently because universities do not have to offer all courses within an academic program if they do not have the resources to do so. This facilitates the ability to offer academic programs in agricultural and related sciences to a national audience and to persons time and place bound.
Publications
- M.Owens Kloepper, P. Curtis, A. Evert, and E. Zweiacher. 2010. Learning and sharing hundreds of miles apart, Ahhh, the power of virtual worlds. NACTA J. (in press).
- M. Owens Kloepper, P. Curtis, A. Evert, and E. Zweiacher. 2010. Where's the Chicken Virtual Reality Brings Poultry Science to Community College, Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), Las Vegas, 12/2/2010.
- Mulvaney, D.R., M.O. Kloepper and P.A. Curtis. 2010. Trends in distance education and technologies in higher education: a call for adaptive leadership. J. Anim. Sci. (in press).
- Kloepper, M.O., P.A. Curtis and D.R. Mulvaney. 2010. Use of Soft Chalk and create professional appearing content that will creatively engage studetns. J. Anim. Sci. (in press).
- Mulvaney, D.R., M.O. Kloepper and P.A. Curtis. 2010. Frameworks for learning: a case study of approaches for building capacity for distance education. J. Anim. Sci. (in press).
- Curtis, P. 2010. Teaching panel on university and industry collaborations. J. Appl. Poult. Res. 19:312-315 (discussed/referenced AG*IDEA on panel).
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