Core Ideas Through instructional scaffolding, students move toward independent learning. The forest floor is an important bridge between aboveground living vegetation and soil. The topic of forest floor is not typically covered in the university curriculum. Instructional scaffolding employs a variety of instructional techniques that move students progressively toward stronger understanding and greater independence in the learning process. The objective of this study was to develop a scaffolding instructional module focused on forest floor for the second‐year Introduction to Soil Science course at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. The scaffolding module included a campus‐based lecture; online multimedia material in the Forest Floor educational resource; campus‐based, instructor‐led demonstrations of forest floor description and classification; campus‐based, collaborative, hands‐on activity; written instructions provided in the laboratory manual; an individual written assignment; and a self‐guided activity (or quest) performed on the university campus aided by a mobile game application. These forms of support were gradually removed as students developed independent learning strategies, culminating in the self‐guided activity that led students to a forest on the university campus to practice their newly developed skills in forest floor description and classification. The scaffolding components were developed to foster intellectual inquiry and analysis, group problem‐solving, and the application of knowledge to complex issues in a real‐life setting. This could serve as a model for future educational design in post‐secondary courses in the natural sciences.

Core Ideas Forest floor is essential to forest ecosystems, but classification is difficult. Multimedia and face‐to‐face learning can teach visual tasks like soil classification. Students identified repeated visualizations and collaboration as important. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods of assessment gives deeper insights. The forest floor is essential to functional, healthy forests. It is important for forestry professionals to understand, describe, and classify forest floors. We developed a Forest Floor educational resource, blending web‐based multimedia and face‐to‐face teaching. The objectives of this study were to (1) develop blended‐learning activities to teach forest floor description and classification and (2) assess student perceptions of the blended‐learning method using exploratory factor analysis and group interviews. We used a Likert scale survey instrument to assess student perceptions of their learning, and investigated underlying factors through exploratory factor analysis of survey results and the manifestation of factors in focus group interviews. Five implicit factors were interpreted: (1) satisfaction with the Forest Floor resource as a learning enhancement; (2) response to presentation of concepts using a blended learning method; (3) student self‐assessment of learning; (4) student learning preferences in accessing materials; and (5) website usability. Ninety‐four percent of students agreed or strongly agreed that the Forest Floor resource was helpful for learning forest floor concepts, 79% that describing samples in class was essential for understanding the properties of organic horizons, and 81% that they were able to relate information in the Forest Floor resource to samples used in a face‐to face activity, demonstrating that students tended to prefer learning information from videos and in collaboration with other students, and felt positive about their knowledge of the new material.

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