Recipient Organization
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
240 FRENCH ADMINISTRATION BLDG
PULLMAN,WA 99164-0001
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Commercial beekeepers provide the vast majority of pollination services necessary to sustain pollination-dependent crop production in the US. Similar to much of the agriculture sector, those commercial beekeepers are dependent on Spanish speaking Hispanic/LatinX and H-2a labor. The skill, experience and education of laborers within beekeeping operations has profound impacts on the quality of life, health, safety and economic viability of the industry. Stakeholders have identified a lack of knowledge about bee biology, common pests and diseases, and bee management as a major hurdle for current and incoming employees. The lack of currently available resources necessary for training these individuals (especially material in Spanish) limits the ability of employers to provide sufficient crew training. As a result, employees are less able to make critical decisions in the field that could enhance colony health and survival in these operations.This project aims to address this inadequacy in existing crew training materials by developing digestible training videos, backed by peer-reviewed, scientific research and delivered by experienced, native Spanish-speaking commercial beekeeper employees. We propose to produce a series of three video modules (each containing 4-6 short videos) that will increase the knowledge of individual beekeeper employees. The educational material will be delivered via online content and advertised via national and regional beekeeper meetings. We will also assess the retention of critical information and effectiveness of these training materials in improvement in beekeeping operations via surveys. Beekeeper crew members make many daily decisions in the field that cumulatively result in major impacts on the sustainability and quality of the US commercial pollination force as a whole. Addressing this critical need for additional crew training in core biological, management and safety knowledge will therefore have a profound impact on this agricultural sector. Ultimately, improving the knowledge and safety of this workforce will improve the quality of life, health, safety and economic sustainability of this critical sector of agriculture and those that depend on pollination.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
This project aims to address this inadequacy in existing crew training materials by developing digestible training videos, backed by peer-reviewed, scientific research and delivered by experienced, native Spanish-speaking commercial beekeeper employees. We propose to produce a series of three video modules (each containing 4-6 short videos) that will increase the knowledge of individual beekeeper employees. The educational material will be delivered via online content and advertised via national and regional beekeeper meetings. We will also assess the retention of critical information and effectiveness of these training materials in improvement in beekeeping operations via surveys. Beekeeper crew members make many daily decisions in the field that cumulatively result in major impacts on the sustainability and quality of the US commercial pollination force as a whole. Addressing this critical need for additional crew training in core biological, management and safety knowledge will therefore have a profound impact on this agricultural sector. Ultimately, improving the knowledge and safety of this workforce will improve the quality of life, health, safety and economic sustainability of this critical sector of agriculture and those that depend on pollination.Long-term Goal:To improve honey bee colony health and survival through increased successful implementation of best management practices (BMPs). BMP implementation will be increased through the development, dissemination, and evaluation of science-based extension and training materials in Spanish to directly serve Spanish speaking employees of commercial beekeeping operations across the US.Extension Objective:Create and disseminate science-based video training modules in Spanish specifically tailored to Spanish-speaking employees of US commercial beekeeping operations.Research Objectives:Assess the short term learning effectiveness, and long term retention of information provided in training modules among employees of commercial beekeeping operations.Assess the impact of video training modules on commercial beekeeping operations using survey data on changes in disease incidence and colony mortality.Assess the impact of video training modules on the quality of life of the participants and operations.
Project Methods
Extension Objective: Create and disseminate science-based video training modules in Spanish specifically tailored to Spanish-speaking employees of US commercial beekeeping operations.Methods:Stakeholder's input on training modulesIn order to ensure that the modules are relevant and germane, stakeholder input will be solicited to choose the topics of the three pilot modules. We will hold a focus group to inform the choice of topics to ensure content is relevant and corresponding to the demands of stakeholders. Stakeholders will rank their preference of topics and we will use their rankings to give each potential topic a cumulative score. The three topics scoring highest will be shared with stakeholders for final approval, and will be used to develop the three pilot modules.In addition to seeking stakeholder input on topics to be included in modules, we will also solicit stakeholder input after modules are developed. We will pilot the modules for a panel of stakeholders including beekeepers, researchers, Bee Informed Partnership bee health specialists, and a sociologist to solicit feedback on format and presentation. The panel will grade each module based on both information accuracy and presentation to ensure that videos are informative and engaging. Feedback will be used to fine tune modules before moving onto the research objectives.Course developmentThe team will develop all of the materials necessary to complete the course (video, subtitles and voice over (EN and SP), supplementary resources, summary notes). Translation of written materials will be done by a professional translation company who's services have been included in the budget. Videos will be filmed in Spanish (see Video Production section below), but subtilties will be provided in English by the professional translation company. Our goal is to develop the course content, structure, and information delivery following approaches that are optimized for online learning (Bae et al., 2019).The course will be available in English and Spanish. The Spanish version will be narrated by a native Spanish speaker. Native Spanish speakers with understanding of beekeeping terminology and practices will be sourced from producer collaborator operations, as well as Washington State University Bee Program personnel.The team will develop scripts directly based on research and data-driven best practices for commercial beekeeping operations in the US. Detailed scripts will be developed for each of the topics selected, and will be sent to review by the multidisciplinary panel discussed in the stakeholder input section above, to verify both the quality of the content and its practicality (See Timeline: Content Development).Video productionOnce scripts have been validated and finalized, we will move to video production. The team has ensured the collaboration of a professional video team with experience in filming in apiary settings, and personal experience beekeeping. Filming will occur in the field with real time, hands on demonstrations performed by the Spanish speaking (bilingual) beekeeping crew member. The exact timing and locations of filming will depend on the final topics stakeholders choose, as some are seasonally dependent. We plan on completing most filming on site in a commercial operation in northern California and North Dakota.For each module, the narrator will read from a teleprompter provided by the film crew for ease of recitation and to ensure information remains accurate. Each module will consist of 3-5 short (< 3 minutes) videos to ensure ease of digestibility and retention. We envision that this format will also allow for the easy addition of future videos to each module with minimal editing. Once all material has been filmed in the field, the video production company will edit and produce the videos. Videos will then be sent to a translation company to have English subtitles added. We envision other languages being added in the future as identified by stakeholder needs. Finally, videos will be hosted in an online format for ease of access and dissemination. Once videos are complete, we will move to begin research objectives to test the effectiveness of these videos in both long-term retention of information and in outcomes for colony health and survival.Dissemination PlanFor this initial proposal, the three initial training modules will be hosted in an online home via a Washington State University WordPress site specifically designated for these modules. Each module will be hosted on its own site including videos and supplemental materials (handouts, figures, etc.) available for download. During the initial phases of testing, only select stakeholders will have access to training modules for the purposes of the research objectives below. Modules will remain available to select stakeholders only until learning retention and effectiveness is studied in years 2 and 3 of this proposed project.?Research Objectives: 2)Assess the short term learning effectiveness, and long term retention of information provided in training modules among employees of commercial beekeeping operations. 3) Assess the impact of video training modules on commercial beekeeping operations using survey data on changes in disease incidence and colony mortality. 4) Assess the impact of video training modules on the quality of life of the participants and operations.Methods:Objective 2) Assess the short term learning effectiveness, and long term retention of information provided in training modules among employees of commercial beekeeping operations.We will partner with three commercial beekeeping operations (letters of support from each of these beekeepers is included: Miller, Heitkam, and Noyes) to test the retention of material presented in our video training modules. Within each operation, we will aim to track the learning of 10 Spanish speaking employees over an entire beekeeping season. Learning effectiveness will be tested by providing a pre-questionnaire to assess the starting point of knowledge. Another questionnaire will be provided immediately post-training to assess the immediate effectiveness of the training materials. Finally, a follow-up questionnaire at the end of the season will be provided to assess long-term retention. Questionnaires will be developed by team personnel but we will seek input from the sociologist we recruit to our review panel referenced in the Stakeholder Input section of Extension Objective 1.Objective 3) Assess the impact of video training modules on commercial beekeeping operations using survey data on changes in disease incidence and colony mortality.We hypothesize that through increased education of employees, commercial operations will see measurable improvements in colony health outcomes and survival. In order to measure these outcomes, we will employ survey methods used by the Bee Informed Partnership in annual loss and management surveys since 2007 (vanEngelsdorp et. al. 2008). We will assess the following outcomes:? Comparison of disease incidence and honey bee colony mortality rate before/ after implementation ; Our 3 producer collaborator owned operations will each provide this data for a total of three years (Year 0 (before), Year 1 (season following first trainings), Year 2 (second season implementation trainings)? Comparison of management performed before/ after implementation: we expect a reduction of the prophylactic use of chemical treatments and antibiotics.Objective 4) Assess the impact of video training modules on the quality of life of the participants and operations.We hypothesize that the training will improve the quality of life of participants and operations by improving the worker's safety, enjoyment, and by increasing the rate of worker retention and return.? Comparison of the perception of safety and enjoyment by the participants? Return rate of the participants compared to non-trained workers