Improving student engagement and learning outcomes with plant identification learning tools

Although the University of New England has been providing distance education for over 50 years, there are still some areas of study that benefit from face-to-face content delivery so that students can successfully meet the learning outcomes. For example, undergraduate study (core to Agricultural degrees) that focuses on the adaptation and identification of important agricultural plants (including crops, pastures and weeds). This unit is generally delivered through several face-to-face practical sessions during which students learn the main identifying features of the plants. However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed all this. Lectures and practicals were moved fully online, so there was a need to rapidly change our approach to delivering this content. Online learning tools were developed to help students learn to recognise the important agricultural plants, but this continues to have relevance for students studying primarily online. We tracked student responses to determine their engagement with the learning tools, along with their success over time in identifying the plants. We investigate the success of the learning tools by comparing student engagement and responses with their final grade in the practical exam, in which they were formally examined on the plant species. The positive feedback we received for the learning tools indicates that this forced change in content delivery was beneficial and, accordingly, we plan to continue using and developing the learning tools.