Colorado Distance Horse Bowl Tournament

Introduction

The Colorado 4-H Horse Program has several facets, including horse showing, judging, horse bowl, hippology, public speaking, and demonstration. Horse bowl is one of the most popular activities among Colorado 4-H horse project members. The traditional horse bowl program allows youth to participate on a team with three other members from their home county. Each contest consists of both individual and team toss-up questions.

To participate in the traditional program, youth must travel to the contest's host county. With the rising costs and burden of travel, participation by some youth has become prohibitive. Also, there is a high-pressure environment surrounding each traditional competition. With this in mind, our goal was to create an online horse bowl program to allow youth to participate wherever access to the Internet was available.

The objectives of the Colorado Distance Horse Bowl Tournament (DHBT) were to:

1. Allow a greater number of 4-H youth to participate in the horse bowl program without traveling long distances,
2. Increase participation in the Colorado 4-H Horse Project, and
3. Increase equine knowledge in Colorado 4-H horse project members.

Method of Instrumentation

The Web-based program WebCT was used to implement the Colorado DHBT. WebCT Inc. is the leading provider of integrated e-learning systems for higher education. Over 27 colleges and universities across North America use some type of WebCT system. WebCT is used primarily for online quizzes, readings, assignments, and to post grades.

Participants in the Colorado DHBT were required to be currently enrolled in the Colorado 4-H Horse Project. Once properly registered, participants received a personalized login name and password to access the three online contests. Communication among team members and use of equine resources during the contest was prohibited. Youth competed as individuals or on a team of four. One very unique feature of the Colorado DHBT is that youth were allowed to form teams with members from any Colorado county, unlike the traditional program in which team members were required to be from the same county.

• Three contests (constituting one tournament) were held in the spring of 2003.
  
  
• Each contest had a specific start and end date and time.
  
  
• Each contest consisted of 40 multiple-choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank questions.
  
  
• Many questions had pictures and diagrams associated with the question (another unique feature of the DHBT).
  
  
• WebCT randomly drew the 40 questions used for each contest from a question bank of 80 questions.
  
  
• There was a different question bank per contest.
  
  
• Participants were allotted 60 minutes to complete each contest.
  
  
• Questions were derived from various equine sources such as the Colorado 4-H Horse Project Manual and Rule Book, equine resource texts, and on-line sources.

Results

Thirty-six participants registered for the program, 14 juniors and 22 seniors. There were two complete junior and senior teams formed. Participants came from eight counties across the state of Colorado.

Program Analysis

Participants were asked to fill out an online survey prior to completion of the third contest. The survey consisted of twelve multiple-choice questions in a format similar to a Likert scale. The survey was used to measure the success of the tournament and to provide input for future years. Twenty-one of the 36 registered participants completed the survey.

• Majority of participants (72%) access the Internet from home.
  
  
• Majority of participants (95%) own a computer and use the Internet 0-5 hrs./wk (57%).
  
  
• Majority of the participants found the contest navigation easy (84%) and the questions not too difficult (52%).
  
  
• Majority of those surveyed participate in other horse bowl programs (67%).
  
  
• Colorado DHBT did increase equine knowledge in most youth (57%).
  
  
• Colorado DHBT is a good alternative for the traditional horse bowl program (90%).

The Colorado DHBT is a great opportunity for 4-H youth to increase their equine knowledge while learning important decision making skills. The Colorado DHBT will encourage participation in the 4-H Horse Project while participants save money, learn more about horses, and have fun with their peers.