Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 38(3): May 2012 Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 2012. 38(3): 105–111 105 Going Online with Arboricultural Education Mark Johnston and Andrew Hirons Abstract. E-learning is the delivery of learning, training, or education programs by electronic means. Over the past two decades this has be- come an increasingly popular way of delivering higher education courses, as this form of delivery provides significant benefits to students and the academic institution. Myerscough College has been a pioneer in developing a fully online degree level course in arboriculture not only in Brit- ain, where the college is based, but also internationally with students now studying online in many different countries. This paper describes how the e-learning degree programs were developed, including the various challenges the programs faced and the interventions that were made to over- come them. It also presents a model for the development of e-learning vocational programs for arboriculture and related industries that oth- er institutions may wish to use or adapt. The paper concludes with an indication of likely future developments in e-learning in arboriculture. Key Words. Career Development; Continuous Professional Development; E-learning; Higher Education; Vocational Courses. ARBORICULTURAL EDUCATION AND DISTANCE LEARNING IN BRITAIN Non-compulsory education in Britain is divided into two main strands: further education and higher education. Fur- ther education is focused on education up to, but not in- cluding, university level courses. Higher education in- cludes undergraduate and post-graduate qualifications. The initial development of arboricultural education in Britain began in the late 1950s with the establishment of the first formal qualifications in the subject (Bridgeman 1976). These were of- fered by the Royal Forestry Society of England, Wales, and North- ern Ireland, but at the time there were no full-time or part-time educational courses to prepare students for the examinations. In the late 1960s, specialist arboricultural courses were first estab- lished at further education level, primarily through Merrist Wood College in Surrey (Bridgeman 2009). However, for many years arboricultural education in Britain continued to be less developed than that of related professions, such as horticulture, forestry, and landscape architecture (Johnston 2001a). It was not until 1992 that the first higher education-level course became avail- able when Myerscough College in Lancashire began its High- er National Diploma in Arboriculture (Johnston 2001b). Then, Myerscough College developed the first degree-level arboricul- tural course when its BSc (Hons) in arboriculture started in 1998. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the demand for ar- boricultural education grew rapidly, particularly at the high- er education level. This was fueled by an increasing drive within the industry to place arboricultural professionals on a similar level to established graduate professions such as forestry, landscape architecture, and planning. The techni- cal aspects of arboriculture and urban forest management had advanced dramatically in the past two decades and educa- tional courses in these subjects needed to reflect this growth. THE BENEFITS OF E-LEARNING Developing an e-learning portfolio offers substantial benefits for potential learners and the academic institution. Increasing ©2012 International Society of Arboriculture At the beginning of the 2000s, Myerscough College was the only educational establishment in Britain offering arbo- ricultural courses at higher education or degree level. How- ever, it was becoming apparent to Myerscough’s staff that full-time or even part-time courses were not a convenient op- tion for many potential students. The need to physically at- tend college was a major disincentive, even for those con- sidering part-time courses. For many potential students, the travel distance to the college, together with employer reluctance to agree to day-release to attend classes, was a major obstacle. There had been a number of early efforts to promote dis- tance learning in arboriculture. The Horticultural Correspon- dence College had been offering arboricultural courses at fur- ther education level by distance learning since the mid-1980s (Menhinick 2010, pers. comm.). From 1997, an arboricultural education and training provider called Treelife began offer- ing more advanced distance learning material at HE level, but these were also correspondence materials (Dowson 2010, pers. comm.). However, over the past two decades, the correspon- dence course as a method of delivering distance learning has been largely replaced with the development of e-learning, the delivery of learning, training, or education programs by elec- tronic means (Harasim et al. 1995; Rudestam and Schoenholtz- Read 2010). E-learning involves the provision of these learning, training, or education materials via the internet, network, stand- alone computer, mobile phone, or other electronic device. With the expanding role of the internet in society and the emerging field of e-learning it became Myerscough’s vision to provide an online, degree-granting opportunity in arboricultural education.
May 2012
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