From Forest to Classroom: A Web-Based Educational Tool on Forest Floor Description and Humus Form Classification.

As global issues exert increasing demand upon the world’s soil resources, the requirement to provide soil science education to the next generation of soil scientists is becoming imminent. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other international organizations have highlighted the increasing necessity of enhancing soil science education. Information communication technology and web-based multimedia are creating new opportunities for post-secondary teaching and learning. Changes in forest floors could serve as early indicators of ecosystem changes due to pollution, changes in climate, or management practices. Web-based learning (WBL) is creating new opportunities for post-secondary education through multimedia enrichment of material, flexibility of time and place along with increased learner control over what material is accessed and the pace of review. The objectives of this study are to: (1) develop a web-based educational tool combining classroom-based teaching with web-based learning, to teach forest floor description and classification of humus forms and (2) evaluate the tool’s effectiveness in teaching students to describe forest floors, classify humus forms and understand associated ecological processes. The forest floor educational tool will give students access to streaming videos, maps, text, photos, graphs, and web links. Using WBL to present material will address the necessity of repetitive visual observations in the description of the forest floor and identification of humus forms. The tool is currently being developed in conjunction with a lab section in the Introduction to Soil Science course at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver by a team of scientists, videography and digital media experts. Students will use the tool to complete a forest floor lab and an associated lab assignment. Student surveys and interviews will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the tool and to refine it.