Student assessment through a survey instrument of a horse management laboratory course

Abstract Text: Inclusion of a hands-on laboratory to the Mississippi State University horse management course, ADS 3223 Horse Management, was done in the spring of 2008, and due to it’s popularity, this year the course offering will be expanded to both the spring and summer semesters.  With course expansion, an understanding of the course impact on students is needed to determine areas that should be explored in future laboratories, and thus, the study objective was to assess through the application of a survey instrument the effectiveness of a horse management laboratory course in developing student’s horse handling abilities.  Students (n=35) enrolled in ADS 3223 Horse Management were given a researcher-developed, 19 forced-choice question survey instrument at the beginning (B) and end (E) of the semester.  Each question described a horse management activity that students rated 1 to 5 for their ability to perform.  A score of 5 indicated the student had a perceived high proficiency level for performing all aspects of the described activity.  The average score for each question was determined and compared using a one-way ANOVA to determine the impact of the course on handling abilities (p<0.05).  While all questions indicated students believed their abilities had improved through completion of the course, a significant impact on skill level according to students’ scores was seen in the following areas: basic handling of European (B: 3.2, E: 4.2) and pony (B: 3.3, E: 4.5) breeds and performance-related handling of society-type (B: 2.4, E: 3.4) breeds (p<0.05).  Students were acclimated to various breeds through laboratory activities.  The highest score given at the end of the semester was associated with the most common laboratory activity, catching, haltering, and leading of adult, well-trained horses (4.75), while the lowest score was associated with an activity not covered in laboratories, handling untrained, young horses (2.7).  At the end of the semester, students were able to select suggested future topics to be covered in which training younger horses was the most popular topic (35%).  While this topic is covered in another course, the majority of the students were all upperclassmen (70%) that were not taking another equine course that same semester (80%), nor had they taken another equine course in past semesters (55%), and thus, topics not covered proficiently in this course may leave these students lacking in those particular horse handling skills.

Keywords: Horse Management, Survey