Understanding student preferences and motivators for diverse instructional methods is essential for improving engagement and learning outcomes in online undergraduate agricultural courses. This study examined instructional method preferences and motivators for students' preferences across three academic years in a completely online poultry course.

Data included five types of instructional methods and six motivators for their choice from students enrolled in the course from 2022 to 2024. We analyzed 1241 responses from 501 students using ANOVA and Tukey’s posthoc tests to understand if there are any differences in student preference for an instructional method (p<0.05). We additionally compared differences within each of these methods across the years. A chi-squared test was used to find if there was any significant difference in choosing an instructional method and motivator over the other (p<0.05).

Overall, the case study was the most liked method (31%), followed by instructor videos (27.5%) and the short-writing project (18.2%). Discussion and critique showed the highest absolute growth in preference over the years (5%), followed by the short-writing project (7%). No significant linear trend was observed between student preferences for instructional methods over 3 years (p>0.05). The most cited reason for the students liking an instructional method was that it gave students an overview of real-world issues associated with chicken farming (232 responses) and potential solutions to share with farmers (204 responses).

These findings highlight student preference for interactive, participatory methods such as case studies and discussion and critique methods in online courses, emphasizing means to develop critical thinking and practical application of course topics. Educators should focus on enhancing student engagement and fostering meaningful learning experiences in specialized agricultural courses offered online by aligning content with student preferences and motivators for their preferences.