By Dr. Richard Wilke and Sarah Wilcox
Environmental Education and Training Partnership
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Many of us feel that the environmental education (EE) instruction we expect of classroom teachers should be reflected in pre-service and in-service teacher preparation. Yet, there is an absence of EE teacher training within institutions of higher learning. In fact, there are only a few colleges and universities across the United States that offer a major, minor, concentration, specialization, or even a course in environmental education.

The Environmental Education and Training Partnership (EETAP) and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) developed the "Fundamentals of Environmental Education" on-line course to provide educators in both formal and non-formal settings with the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate quality environmental education (EE) practice into their instruction. Offering EE educator training as an on-line course allows a wider audience to access this opportunity, meets the needs of participants that are unable to attend classes on campus, and links people from different cultural and experiential backgrounds.

Development of the course began in spring 2002 as a graduate seminar project for UWSP graduate students led by Rick Wilke. The framework for the course is based on NAAEE's Guidelines for the Initial Preparation of Environmental Educators (2000). Susan Toth, then a faculty member at the Florida Atlantic University, and Dr. Daniel Sivek, Professor of Environmental Education at UWSP, were recruited to improve upon the work of the graduate students. The course developed by Susan and Dan was than reviewed by several EE professionals, including five past presidents of NAAEE. The feedback from these reviewers was used to make additional improvements in the course.

UWSP and Murray State University (MSU) offered the course for the first time in fall 2002. UWSP offered the course again in the spring and fall of 2003. Approximately 120 students have enrolled in the course from 38 different states and five different countries. EETAP is now providing course scholarships to state EE leaders. Over 30 state EE association board members and state coordinators for PLT, WILD, and WET have enrolled in the course. The USDA Forest Service has also been supporting the enrollment of their staff in the course.

Each time the course has been offered we have asked the participants to evaluate it. Upon completion of the course, students use an on-line questionnaire to provide feedback about the course. For each of 38 Likert scale statements on the questionnaire, we assigned a number to each ordered-choice response category (e.g., 5=strongly agree, 4=somewhat agree, 3=neutral, 2=somewhat disagree, 1=strongly disagree) and found the mean score. These evaluation results, along with open-ended question responses and instructor evaluations, help us determine how well we are doing and how we can improve the course.

Student evaluations were very positive from the first course offering and student feedback helped us to make the course even better. Most recently, the fall 2003 course participants responded positively (mean score of 4.0 or better) to 36 of the 38 items on the evaluation. Examples of responses include:

• The content challenged me intellectually. M=4.64

• I consider myself more knowledgeable about EE after taking this course. M=4.79

• This course will influence my future teaching of EE. M=4.62

• There seemed to be sufficient interaction between the students and the instructor. M=4.44

While the initial reactions from course participants have been positive, we wanted to know whether the course had any long term impact on EE instruction. In May 2003, approximately five instructional months after the fall 2002 students completed the course, a follow-up survey asked UWSP students to evaluate whether they thought the course encouraged them to incorporate learned elements of environmental education into their instruction.

17 students returned the follow-up survey for a response rate of 81%.

• 94% strongly agreed or agreed that the course better prepared them to provide environmental education instruction.

• 50% of those who had been in a position to teach EE in the past 5 months strongly agreed or agreed that as a result of taking the course, they now infused more EE into their teaching. Nobody disagreed with this statement (the other 50% responded "neutral" or did not respond).

• 82% strongly agreed or agreed that since taking the course, they had made a more conscious effort to present controversial environmental issues in a balanced, unbiased manner.

The student evaluations of the on-line course are encouraging and it seems we have developed a course that many educators have found highly valuable. EETAP is interested in increasing the number of educators that receive environmental education training beyond what can be served by UWSP alone. Hence, we are developing agreements with colleges, universities and natural resource organizations across the country so they can use the course to provide environmental education training to their students and staff. The Ohio State University recently agreed to use the course and several other universities are completing agreements for the use of the course. The California State Park System is also planning to use the course to provide in-service education to their staff.

Faculty interested in making the "Fundamentals of Environmental Education" on-line course available at their school are encouraged to contact us.

If you have suggestions for additional on-line course topics you are also encouraged to contact us. EETAP will be developing two new on-line courses aimed at meeting the needs of non-formal educators. Based on the success of our first on-line course we know there are EE needs we can satisfy through the use of distance learning.