Integration of Forestry Research and Extension in an Online Graduate Course

Despite calls for integrated education from the literature and federal granting agencies, some forestry faculty and students prefer to cultivate specific disciplinary expertise. A regional grant-funded project fostering integrated research, however, enabled a climate of experimentation among the participating faculty who created an interdisciplinary distance graduate course focused on climate change, research supporting forest management, and stakeholder communication in the southeastern United States. The two-credit seminar-style course was offered for 2 years and was required of the masters and doctoral students from nine universities that were funded by the project. Student evaluations and faculty reflection from the 1st year were used to improve the course for a second offering, including reducing the amount of readings, requiring levels of participation for a grade, and further developing assignment instructions. Evaluations from both years suggested that the course format was valuable and the assignments engaged students in better understanding disciplines outside their own and applying research to meet stakeholder needs. The course successfully introduced the project and launched students toward integrated research. Useful aspects of the course can be duplicated by the forestry faculty from one institution who wish to create an interdisciplinary issue-focused course or by a regional team from several institutions through an online platform. A variety of strategies can be used to help prepare students to contribute to resolving complex, interdisciplinary societal issues.