A study found effective learning of bird identification skills and online tests reflect field skills

During 2010–2018, 798 students from nine European countries participated in the combined field and online teaching program in bird identification arranged by Nord University. The countries were Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. The research method was an online bird identification test (www.birdid.no) at the beginning of the study, an online test and a field test (point count) at the end of the field teaching period, and an online exam at the end of the study. The results showed great progress from the beginning to the exam at the end of the study (Figure 1), measured on the 61 students who completed all four tests in 2018.

The students’ scores on bird appearance (n=560) and bird sounds (n=464) both increased significantly during the study period. The data from all students showed higher knowledge about bird appearance than of bird sounds, both before (n=759) and after (n=483) the study. There was a positive correlation between initial skills and exam results, but some keen students showed impressive progress during the study period.

Figure 1. Mean sum scores on online bird appearance and bird sound tests before the study started in March – April (± SD), fieldtests at the end of the teaching period, online test at the end of the field teaching period (summer), and online exam results atthe end of the year. The data includes 61 students taking all four tests in 2018, and no overlap in SD show statistically significantdifferences.Figure 2. Scores on online bird appearance tests before the study period (informal before) and the online exam score after thestudy period (rs = 0.44, n = 561, p < 0.001).

One important result of the study was that the field test showed a strong positive correlation with the online test taken simultaneously, thus indicating that functional competence can be measured in the online exam (Figure 4). The strong relationship between these two tests means the online tests measured what they intended to quite well, meaning that the validity is high, even though the online tests and field skills are not fully comparable. However, the high and significant relationship between the student’s ability to identify birds on a computer and in the field implies that the BirdID online tests can be used to qualify volunteers for bird census work.

Figure 2. Relationships between the field test and online test scores. Both tests were conducted at the end of the field teachingperiod (rs = 0.74, n = 94, p < 0.001).

The study was published in the Journal of Biological Education (Taylor and Francis Group).

Joint study-lead Professor Magne Husby at Nord University said: “We are especially satisfied with the interest in this project from countries in eastern and southeastern Europe, which hold the populations of the most threatened bird species in Europe. In these parts of Europe, there is a need for more ornithologists to participate in bird census projects.”

The authors recommend the birdid.no website for teaching and testing students’ skills in bird identification and similar projects for species identification for all taxa. Because of a few technical problems with the existing version of the BirdID website, a new one is under construction.

Bird ID app

Source information

Effective learning and testing of bird identification skills (tandfonline.com).

Husby, M., Fiskum, T.A., Belchev, B., Bino, T., Hristov, I., Keišs, O., Kuzyo, H., Samotskaya, V., Šćiban, M. & Šoštarić, I. (2024) Effective learning and testing of bird identification skills. Journal of Biological Education, 12 Aug 2024.