Best Practices in On-line Learning

eXtension: HorseQuest

Betsy Greene, Ph.D. PASUniversity of Vermont

HorseQuest• Community of Practice in eXtension

– Extension Equine Specialists, Educators, Field Faculty, etc. with horse responsibilities

• Components of the site– Utilizing existing material– Efficient/effective ways of working

• Usage tracking– Who is using it when?

Components of HorseQuest• Basic Information• FAQs• Learning Modules• Web Chats (tonight)• News• Hot Topics

Techniques to Convert Existing Materials to Web

• Existing pubs posted• Best of the best• Basic information• Incorporation of materials/knowledge

into Learning Modules

• Collaboration/collegiality/trust

Examples of Current Activities

• Quarterly Web Chats– Group sets topics in face to face meetings– Experts are chosen/volunteer (3-4)– Materials are put up on web for pre-reading– One facilitator– Survey Evaluation post chat

How well does it work?

Learning Modules

• Condition Scoring Your Horse• Horse Owner Survival• Horse Survival• Green Acres• Enjoying Your Horse

Topics Chosen Based on FAQ Responses

Refresher…

• R = correlation coefficient - or - the measure of how well two variables (e.g. month # and area under the curve) fit.

(September ’06 – May ’07)

R2 = (e.g. = .9409) = how much variability of data is explained by equation.

• (in the next case ~94% is explained by the month…i.e. good fit!)

Unique VisitorsUnique Visitors

y = 2996.5x - 400.92

R2 = 0.9409

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Number of Visits

Number of Visits

y = 3751.8x + 446.25

R2 = 0.9396

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Most View Sites

Most Visited Sites/horses

/articles/horse_breeds

/articles/horse_facilities

/articles/horses

/articles/horse_training_and_behavior/articles/horse_selection_and_use/articles/horse_feeding_management/articles/horse_hoof

/articles/horse_diseases

/pages/HorseQuest_Learning_Lessons/articles/horse_nutrition

/articles/horse_health

Hours of Day: Pages Viewed

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HOURS0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

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“Area Under the Curve” - PagesPages-AUC

y = 9519x + 26925

R2 = 0.8557

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Hours of Day: Hits

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HOURS0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

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Area Under the Curve - HitsHits-AUC

y = 103864x + 87160

R2 = 0.8918

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(P<.001)

Questions?