Departmental-level curricular redesign is a vital issue in higher education, especially as departments work to move toward more student-centered teaching and learning environments. However, there is a lack of guidance on the steps to take or potential solutions to challenges faced by faculty and departments undergoing the curricular redesign…

Educators often compare quantitative scores on motivational traits across time (e.g., pre- and post-semester), yet few studies have examined the longitudinal measurement equivalence of such traits or described typical trajectories. Our research explored the longitudinal measurement of individual interest in two cohorts of an introductory animal…

Undergraduate research experiences have well-established benefits on undergraduate education, such as improved critical thinking, professional development, and increased interest in graduate studies. In addition, the host faculty can benefit by increasing their research impact and gaining exposure to potential graduate candidates. In the…

The outbreak of COVID-19 during the spring 2020 semester prevented the normal face-to-face format of the Equine Reproduction and Foaling course and laboratory due to campus closure and prevention of students returning to campus. This case study provides a unique teaching strategy utilizing a cloud-based live feed video surveillance system for the…

The swift transition to remote learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic presented substantial challenges for both students and instructors in post-secondary natural sciences education. To examine teaching practices and student engagement during the emergency remote learning in the Spring 2020 semester, we surveyed 10 instructors and 261…

The coronavirus pandemic of 2019 transformed the way that educators, across all levels and disciplines, seek to establish and provide a pedagogically sound curriculum. With the continued need to transform curriculum into an online format, secondary-level animal science instructors have several points to consider if their applied discipline will…

As faculty continue to become generations removed from production agriculture, it may be difficult for some instructors to determine the production experience of students in their classrooms. This presents a unique issue in the broader field of agriculture education across disciplines in areas such as curriculum development and teaching…

Nutrient loss and accumulation as well as associated environmental degradation have been a concern for animal agriculture for many decades. Federal and New York (NY) regulations apply to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and a comprehensive nutrient management plan (CNMP) is required for regulated farms. The whole farm nutrient mass balance…

The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public Carnegie Foundation Research institution with 14 schools and colleges that enrolls more than 18,000 undergraduate students at the main campus in Storrs, CT. Beginning in 1999, First-Year Experience (FYE) seminars were offered to entering freshman students. Since that time, the size of the program…

Substantial growth in online education in the United States has prompted questions on the levels of student learning and satisfaction achieved and the amount of instructor time investment required in the online environment compared to the face-to-face (F2F) environment. To date, very few have studied these measurements in science courses, and none…