by Leah Sandall | Distance Education Coordinator
The Department of Agronomy and Horticulture has a long history of offering online education opportunities for learners. This past academic year, the online courses (or sections) provided for students made up 26% of the total student credit hours in the department. In total, the department offers 34 online courses between the undergraduate and graduate programs.
Are you ready for the start of the semester?
Get ready for the start of the semester with these course preparation resources (online and in-person) from the Center for Transformative Teaching (CTT).
- Planning for the first week of classes
- Cultivating an inclusive classroom environment
- Teaching@UNL: A Comprehensive Resource
- Syllabus Review Guide for Equity-Minded Practice
YuJa to replace VidGrid
Introducing YuJa, the new video content management system! YuJa will replace VidGrid (available through spring 2023). A few things to know about the transition to YuJa:
- All videos will be automatically transferred from VidGrid to the YuJa platform. More information to come from ITS on this later in the fall.
- You can start using YuJa now! Access it through Canvas or at https://unl.yuja.com
- Additional information on YuJa, including FAQ’s, can be found at https://services.unl.edu/service/academic-video-yuja-unl
Online resources for any user
In addition to offering academic online learning opportunities, the Distance Education team also manages and supports online resources which can be used by any learner. Three new lessons have been published on the Plant and Soil Sciences eLibrary (PASSeL) website. PASSeL lessons are accessed by teachers, students, and the general public with over 1.4 million users visiting the site this past year.
- Biodegradable Mulch: Analyzing Research Articles and Statistical Data
- Buffalo Grass Field Data Part 1: Scoring and Data Analysis
- Buffalo Grass Field Data Part 2: Editing and Graphing Data
Are you interested in contributing to PASSeL?
The Distance Education team is always looking for content reviewers and contributors on topics related to plants and soil science. Lessons developed for PASSeL can be submitted for peer review and published as a web lesson with a journal like Natural Sciences Education. Contact McKinzie Sutter or Leah Sandall to find out more about contributing to PASSeL.
Distance Ed team to conduct survey
The Distance Education Program aims to create seamless collaboration between extension and teaching colleagues to increase engagement and partnership in online education. They want to develop online courses, certificates, badges, and resources based on strategic growth plans and areas of need. They are conducting a survey to have a better understanding of the existing online extension resources that can be assembled into an educational program. They welcome your feedback on the Qualtrics survey.
Based on the initial survey, the Distance Education team developed an inventory list of available extension resources, including 30 websites, over 1,500 videos, 88 podcasts and other content. Please feel free to add or modify entries to this shared inventory spreadsheet. Contact Luqi Li if you have questions or suggestions.
More details at: https://agronomy.unl.edu/online