Source: LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
DEVELOPMENT OF INTERACTIVE COMPUTER-BASED IPM CURRICULA FOR MOSQUITO CONTROL WORKERS IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
3D GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1000835
Grant No.
2013-41530-21209
Cumulative Award Amt.
$69,770.00
Proposal No.
2013-04445
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2013
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2016
Grant Year
2013
Program Code
[QQ.S]- Integrated Pest Management - South Region
Recipient Organization
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
202 HIMES HALL
BATON ROUGE,LA 70803-0100
Performing Department
Entomology
Non Technical Summary
In the Southern United States, mosquitoes are a year-round problem. However, in the Southern part of the United States, there are very few states that offer training and courses to mosquito control workers in mosquito biology, habitat recognition, and species identification. Of the few states providing workshops and training opportunities, courses are often scheduled in a classroom setting, making it difficult for most workers to travel for a single day event. As a result, trainers often condense the material to accommodate a shorter program, and workers do not get an in depth look at the material. While many universities have begun developing distance based courses to reach a larger target audience, they do no incorporate interactive components that can provide a more hands-on approach to learning. We propose building virtual curricula in five courses, (1) Mosquito Biology, (2) Mosquito Habitat Recognition, (3) Mosquito identification, (4) Integrated Mosquito Management, and (5) Advanced Concepts in Mosquito Biology and Control. These courses will be fully interactive computer based programs that will be tied into distance based training programs for mosquito control workers. By providing education to a wider geographic area about mosquitoes and mosquito IPM, we can ensure a larger proportion of mosquito control workers are knowledgeable about mosquito IPM, and can therefore have a greater impact on successfully controlling mosquitoes. Our goal through this project is to increase the knowledge and adoption of integrated pest management of mosquitoes in the Southern United States.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
72131101130100%
Knowledge Area
721 - Insects and Other Pests Affecting Humans;

Subject Of Investigation
3110 - Insects;

Field Of Science
1130 - Entomology and acarology;
Goals / Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to train mosquito control personnel throughout the Southern United States on integrated mosquito management using interactive computer based curricula. A major component of the project is to develop five interactive curricula in (1) Mosquito Biology, (2) Mosquito Identification, (3) Mosquito Habitat Recognition, (4) Integrated Mosquito Management, and (5) Advanced Concepts In Mosquito Biology and Control using Adobe Flash Professional software. Our goal is to use the developed curricula to train mosquito control personnel throughout the Southern United States in a cost effective, standardized, and interactive computer based format.
Project Methods
Developing the curricula: In this project, we wil take high quality video footage of mosquito habitats throughout the Southern United States. The video footage will be incorporated into interactive curricula for training purposes.We will also betaking high quality photos of mosquito species, their anatomy, and key characters used in their identification. The photos will be included in the interactive curricula that will be used for training.We will then be using video, photos, and animations to develop five interactive curricula in (1) Mosquito Biology, (2) Mosquito Identification, (3) Mosquito Habitat Recognition, (4) Integrated Mosquito Management, and (5) Advanced Concepts In Mosquito Biology and Control using Adobe Flash Professional software.These curricula will beusedto train mosquito control personnel throughout the Southern United States in a cost effective, standardized, and interactive computer based format. Efforts This project will involve developing interactive computer based curricula. This methodology was chosen to reach a larger target audience, in a low cost format. Training sessions are often used to cover large amounts of material in a short amount of time to a larger audience. Small interactive classrooms cover a larger amount of material over a larger span of time, but are often costly, and exclude individuals that can not travel long distances to attend a class. The interactive computer based curricula will allow students to run through curricula at their own pace, while covering a large amount of information. Students will be tested on their knowledge throughout the curricula, being asked to answer questions, click on the correct photo, move objects to the correct location, and type in the correct answer to continue. Evaluation We plan on evaluating the study through before and after surveys of those participating in the curricula. These will be compared to surveys from individuals taking an annual training. Their understanding of Integrated Pest Management will also be evaulated throughout the course, as they complete online tests of their knowledge. This will also help us gauge which concepts we need to work on further.

Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/16

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project is mosquito control. These interactive lessons have been developed to teach mosquito control workers and public health professionals key areas of mosquito biology, identification, and habitat recognition. These lessons can also be used by public health entomology students. Changes/Problems:Our major problem is that we underestimated the time it would take to develop as many lesson plans that we proposed. While we have compiled a lot of the materials, we still have a lot of work to do in order to finish this project to the level that we are interested. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Since we have begun developing these materials, we have decided to enhance our training to mosuqito control workers on "Mosquito Identification". Many of our mosquito identification tools were piloted in 2spring workshops on mosquitoidentification which was provided to over 40 mosquito control workers around the state. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We are still finalizing much of our interactive lessons. However, many of the materials have been disseminated to mosquitocontrol workers through emails and spring workshops. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We continued to develop materials that will be incorporated into interactive lessons. We have found much of this to be quite labor intensive. These materials have included (1) an animated 3D video of the anatomy of the mosquito that will be incorporated into Mosquito identificaiton lesson plans, (2) up close photos of mosquitoes showing important identification characteristics, (3) video footage of mosquito habitats from the field, (4) powerpoint presentations that have been developed into short videos and incorporated into lesson plans, and (5) mostly completed interactive lessons with video, photos, and interactive questions.

Publications


    Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14

    Outputs
    Target Audience:The target audience for our project is mosquito control personnel that are requiring self-paced educational resources. Changes/Problems:The major issues are the time consuming nature of developing these materials. However, we currently have several mosquito species in colony, which will allow us to take better photos and videos for our interactive curricula. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We are continually working with mosquito control personnel to best understand the needs of those organizations. Throughout the year, we have been providing our stakeholder groups with a glimpse of some of the materials we have been developing. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan on finalizing many of the interactive lessons over the spring semester. This will include developing the final interactive lessons using Adobe Flash, and incorporating our 3-dimension mosquito anatomy video into the program.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? We have already developed numerous interactive curricula to teach mosquito biology, identification, and integrated mosquito management.We are finishing the interactive mosquito identification component, using a 3D model of a mosquito. This 3D model will be incorporated into the identification component of the curriculum. Students taking the lesson, will be allowed to view the anatomy tutorial at any time throughout the lesson.

    Publications

    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: The use of technology in mosquito extension programs. The Annual American Mosquito Control Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, March, 2015.