Assessing Learning in Ethnobotany fall 2020

SC/SS 115 Ethnobotany proposes to serve three program learning outcomes through two course level outcomes. The course serves learning outcomes in general education and the Micronesian studies program. Fall 2020 the course moved online due to a global pandemic. This necessitated a complete redesign of the course from a field oriented, hands-on, experiential course to a remotely delivered course. Students in the course were on the islands of Pohnpei, Chuuk, and Yap. Content was delivered through ethnobotany videos produced for the course.

PLOSC/SS 115 CLO
GE 3.4 Define and explain scientific concepts, principles, and theories of a field of science.1. Identify local plants, their reproductive strategies, and morphology.
GE 4.2 Demonstrate knowledge of the cultural issues of a person’s own culture and other cultures.

MSP 2 Demonstrate proficiency in the geographical, historical, and cultural literacy of the Micronesian region.		2. Communicate and describe the cultural use of local plants for healing, as food, as raw materials, and in traditional social contexts.

CLO 1

Identify local plants, their reproductive strategies, and morphology.

Prior to the fall of 2020 this learning outcome was met through a combination of field experiences, presentations in class, and tests. This term course learning outcome one was primarily delivered via submissions to iNaturalist by the students and through questions on tests. During the term students were assessed on this outcome 11 times. 


The term began with 25 students. During the term five students would withdraw or be withdrawn from the course prior to the tenth week. Two were withdrawn for lacking the technology to participate in the course, three were withdrawn for lack of participation and failure to submit assignment work over a period exceeding at least four weeks. 

During the term 24 students contributed a total of 300 observations of 98 species of plants to iNaturalist. By term end 19 of the 20 remaining students exceeded 70% on at least five assessments of learning outcome one.

CLO 2

Communicate and describe the cultural use of local plants for healing, as food, as raw materials, and in traditional social contexts.

Course learning outcome two was assessed primarily through the submission of video presentations on healing plants, food plants, plants used in material culture, and plants in legends or ceremonies.


Learning outcome two was also assessed through questions in online tests. The students were evaluated nine times against this learning outcome, with each of the four video submissions counting as one of the nine encounters with the outcome. 17 of the 20 students who completed the course demonstrated at least a 70% success rate five or more times.

The change of the course from a field oriented, hands on, experiential course to a remote learning course with online submissions fundamentally changed the nature of assessment in the course. Term-on-term or year-on-year comparisons are not statistically meaningful. 

In moving a field experiences oriented, hands on, experiential learning course online, much of the personal interaction that is at the core of cultural uses of plants is lost. The course continued to deliver the required learning outcomes, but without the personal interactivity that work in the field brings. By the end of the residential course the class has moved from being a set of independent individuals to a community of learners operating in a socially cohesive manner. Online education does not build a sense of community among the learners. The students remain isolated and separate from each other. Food, healing, and ceremonies are integrated with social interactions that build a community, unite a society. Online ethnobotany does not do this, by the very nature of online education students are kept separate from each other. 

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