The New Multi-Media and Interactive "Classrooms" - www.uidaho.edu/cfwr-teaching
Article by Denise Ortiz in Focus on Renewable Natural Resources 1996 (volume 20, page 9).

Faculty in college are using multi-media techniques to advance both teaching and research. One example is Associate professor Ronald Robberecht's computer-aided instruction of range ecology courses. Melding various media (text, animated graphics, digitized motion video, sound, digitized photos) into one seamless lecture presentation, he has found that this technology considerably enhances lecture quality and student understanding of complicated scientific concepts.

Each course has its corresponding internet site used to distribute handouts, sample examination study questions, reading assignments, course descriptions, reference lists, course announcements, journal listings, books and articles, and Internet links to other web sites related to ecology. Especially useful to students is the access to career information, bibliographic databases, professional societies, other libraries, and more.

Robberecht has also created an electronic ecology textbook on CD-ROM. The textbook includes such enhancements as interactive self-study exercises, simulation modeling of ecological processes (student input predicts the outcome of a process), and extensive databases for reference materials. Robberecht's programs can be accessed at: www.uidaho.edu/ecology.

In forest resources, graduate student Riyaz Sadiq and faculty members Molly Stock, Dave Wenny, and Ronald Robberecht have created "An Interactive Expert System for Nursery Managers." To be used for computer-aided design of nursery operations and nursery manager training, the program focuses on planning a growing regime for ponderosa pine seedlings.

Professor Stock also uses an expert system-based multimedia program to introduce forest resources freshmen to the department's curriculum and helps them with registration decisions. And she is developing "The Fire Monitoring Navigator" for the Interior Fire Coordination Committee of the USDI Fish and Wildlife Service. Cooperators include Willard Leenouts, Melanie Miller, and Frank Bodin. Access her at mstock@uidaho.edu.


Focus on Renewable Natural Resources is published annually by:
Idaho Forest, Wildlife and Range Experiment Station
College of Forestry, Wildlife and Range Sciences
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho 83844 USA
For current or back issues, email: forserv@uidaho.edu

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