Developing and Evaluating IoT- based Digital Farming and Environmental Security Course: Al Istiqlal University Experience

The internet of things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm of applications of innovative technologies in the current educational era. Using IoT technology tools assists teachers develop the experience available to students more than the traditional curriculum. The purpose of this study was to describe the designed course on digital farming and environmental security as well as the students’ assessment of such curricula. A questionnaire was designed and its validity was tested in order to attain these objectives. All 35 students enrolled in Al Istiqlal University’ s (PASS) GIS department were included in the study sample. Team from PASS developing digital farming and environmental security course using the innovative IoT technology. Training adopted the TPACK instructional design model, which is characterized by a complicated interaction between technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge. The trained team produced the Terms of Reference (ToR) by defined all the educational aspects of the developed new course such as goal, objectives and intended learning outcomes. Based on the produced ToR, the trained team developed digital farming and environmental security course curricula and syllabus. AgriLive monitoring system were installed in the date palm farms to provide an applied learning environment that enhances the knowledge contained in the curriculum. The results of this research indicated that all of the study tool’ s questions were accepted by the students, supporting the development of the course in accordance with the PASS model. With an average of (3.32), the overall level of students’ assessment of the curriculum and materials was high. The overall means for assessing students’ understanding of the designed course and their assessment of its contents and curriculum came out on high level with means of (3.33) and (3.31), respectively. This study recommend this developed course as a new model to be adopted from the universities in Palestine.