Use of Virtual Field Trips to Enhance the Educational Experience

Field trips are an important component of many horticulture courses.  Daytime field trips to botanical gardens, arboretums, nurseries, greenhouses, and other horticulture operations are difficult to schedule and many students are not able to attend due to scheduling conflicts.  Furthermore, as more courses are developed for on-line (web) delivery, we lose the opportunity to show students real-world examples via the field trip.  The development of Virtual Field Trips (VFT) using DVD video as a course aid would enable those students that do not have the flexibility to attend daytime fieldtrips to watch well produced and informative videos as well as assist them in learning more about plant growth, identification, production, and use.  This presentation will outline some of the challenges and benefits of using VFT as well as present student feedback on VFT.