Wildlife University Uses Online Learning to Spur Action

An Interview with the Leaders of the National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife University

Stephanie Eskins, distance learning manager for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), and Diane Rhodes-Michaely, NWF's distance learning specialist, share their goals and experiences in launching Wildlife University.

What are the goals of Wildlife University?

Wildlife University™ is the National Wildlife Federation’s online, educational portal that teaches the public about wildlife and wild places, helps learners identify issues that impact people as well as wildlife, and provides ways for them to take action on these issues.

Although Wildlife University offers many learning options for people (such as online presentations and discussion boards), the most popular option is the online courses. Each course provides opportunities for people to (a) learn at their own pace and (b) apply what they’ve learned through experiential, “hands-on” activities. The activities we recommend vary for each course topic--some people decide to remove invasive plants in their yards and replace them with native ones. Other people begin to practice water conservation around their home, such as the learner who vowed, “I will never use a sprinkler again!” Others become involved in one of our national programs or become volunteers with National Wildlife Federation. In all of the courses, learners have a wide variety of activities to choose from so they can easily find ones that appeal to them.

The courses in Wildlife University are currently divided into the following series:

1. The Creating Places for Wildlife series is for people who want to learn more about how to garden for wildlife. As people work through the courses in this series they learn how to preserve and create wildlife habitats in their own backyards, schoolyards, and communities.
2. The Endangered Species series provides an in-depth look at some of the most imperiled species in the United States today. By participating in one or all of the courses in this series, learners gain a greater awareness and understanding of the threats facing each species, how the issues that impact wildlife also impact humans, and what they can do to help. This series is available thanks to the generous support of the Surdna Foundation.

Tell us more about the courses. Do you have any results on their impact?

Each course has text, guest lectures that include audio/visual presentations, and quizzes. In addition, we’ve included surveys that ask learners what they have done as a result of taking the course or what they plan to do. Learners register in order to access the courses and the discussion boards, and we can track their progress through the courses.

Other organizations may be interested in some of the data we gathered from our Creating Places for Wildlife series over a four-month period in 2003.

After two e-mail blasts to our existing “backyard enthusiasts,” over 500 people completed one or more of the seven courses in four months. We found out that they visited the site an average of three or four times a month for about 27 minutes at a time. Of our learners, 64 percent indicated that they completed several of the hands-on activities. Most importantly, 75 people signed up to become volunteers for our “Habitat Ambassador” program, which requires that they successfully complete all seven Creating Places for Wildlife courses (i.e., they must pass the quizzes and do at least 10 hours of hands-on work in their local communities). They submitted “portfolios” that demonstrated what they learned, received individual feedback throughout the process, and, once “certified,” were matched up with opportunities to teach others in their community.

What has surprised you most about the program?

Stephanie: For me the biggest surprise continues to be hearing how people start out taking the courses to “try an online course for free” and then end up getting involved in ways that are great for us as an organization. For example, yesterday I received four “essays” from a teenager and his dad. The son took four courses. After each one he wrote an essay about what they could do in their yard to apply what he learned. Then they did the activities together and attached pictures of what they had done. You should see the water feature they built together. They knew which wildlife they could expect to use it, what would be required to maintain it properly, and how to design it for the most benefit to various species in their area (Texas)!

Diane: I was surprised at the level of response to Wildlife University. In the weeks before we launched the Web site, we had almost 1,000 people checking to see when it was slated to go live. And now that we’ve been live for a couple of months, we have learners who have taken all the courses and are asking for more. For example, some people are aware of an endangered species in their region and want to learn more about it via a Wildlife University course. We’ll be working hard to keep up with
the demand for more online courses about wildlife.

What advice would you give to other organizations starting a distance learning program?

Stephanie: Can I give two different kinds of advice? One, require that online learning be part of a larger engagement strategy that supports your mission. It’s great for people to come and take a course, but what you really want is for them to do something with what they learned. When someone in your organization suggests a topic for a course, ask them to define the outcomes they are looking for before you decide that online learning is the right way to meet their goals. Then, survey their audience afterwards to see if it met their original goals. I think you have to build in your definition of success before you begin, and then you have to create a way to measure it.

Two, make sure you have the right skill sets on your team before you get going. For example, don't assume that because you have content experts you can just take that material and put it online. You must have someone like Diane with instructional design skills and distance learning skills. Also, in order to perform usability testing early on before you’ve invested a lot of resources, you'll need someone on your team who can do that. If you don’t know usability testing, find someone who does. It is essential.

Diane: My advice is know your audience’s interests. We have a lot of information about our membership, but I wish we had spent more time surveying our target audience about their specific interests in online courses so that we would have had a better idea about how receptive our audience would be to each of our proposed course topics. We could have used that data along with other factors in our development planning.