Poultry production: a model for developing interactive Internet-based distance education

Department of Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, USA. jemmert@uark.edu

Over the last several decades, many poultry science programs have merged with other departments, but the poultry industry has undergone tremendous expansion worldwide, leading to a growing instructional void with regard to poultry production information. The objective of this project was to address the demand for information by developing two Web-based poultry production courses that cover management of broilers, turkeys, breeders, and layers. The Internet was chosen as the platform because it is asynchronous and may be accessed from any connected site around the world. To be effective, web-based courseware must be theoretically grounded and interactive, but university-level web-based distance education courses often fail to meet these standards. During courseware development, the impact of instructional techniques and technologies on interactivity and learning outcomes was explored. A content expert, an instructional designer, and a graphic artist carefully reviewed a variety of instructional techniques to increase interactivity. Concept mapping was chosen because it has been shown to be a superior learning tool for enhancing the exchange of ideas and knowledge between instructors, students, and content. A unique instructional interface was established that includes threaded e-mail discussion, thought questions, animation, hypertext, rollover interactions, video clips, and concept mapping exercises. Results indicate that the integration of concept mapping into web-based learning environments successfully increased interactivity and learning outcomes.