Students attending colleges and universities have been interested in seed science but have not had an adequate offering of courses at most universities. Many universities offer some seed science courses, but most do not have a complete set of courses that will allow a student to specialize in that area. There is a growing need to understand seed science because of the expanded technologies associated with the industry. Donald F. Miles, Jr., Production Manager with Pioneer wrote and stated, "People with an understanding of seed science and technology will be essential to the seed industry to:

Other seed industry representatives have stated that, "Employees are needed that understand the basic principles of seed science. Companies that meet the demand for high quality seed in a timely manner will be successful". Seed science and technology education needs to identify creative ways to deliver coursework to students in a non-traditional format to meet the needs of an expanded biotechnology based seed industry. Most universities that offer seed science courses require a minimum number of students enrolled to offer the class and present the course in a traditional resident student format. Through a national distance education program in seed science and technology, we can provide every student at any university or remote location an opportunity to take courses from the experts. A survey conducted by the Seed Technology Educational Programs (STEP) at Colorado State University indicated that many Registered and Certified seed analysts were in need of advanced training in specific areas such as, vigor, dormancy, production, deterioration and storage, conditioning, and other specific areas. This survey also indicated that training of beginning seed analysts was needed. In addition to this survey, several seed companies and State seed laboratory representatives have indicated that they are having difficulty finding trained individuals with a well rounded education in Seed Science. As the result of this survey, curriculum materials were developed for four courses offered through a traditional distance learning format that included a course syllabus, textbook readings, photographs of seeds, video clips and seed samples. The four courses are:

In addition, summer workshops have been conducted for intensive hands-on learning. The first students enrolled in February, 1998, and there are over 300 students who have enrolled in these courses. These are a diverse group of students representing 26 states and 7 other countries. In July of 1999, a grant was received from the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) to adopt these existing courses to a web-based learning format. These courses are now available to students. The large numbers of students who have taken the first 4 courses offered through distance education are an indication of the courses and the support of the program by the seed industry. Many of the registrants of the courses are seed company employees and have been encouraged to take these courses by their employers and in most cases the companies are paying the cost of course registration. In addition, seed analysts are asking for additional courses to expand their knowledge and also to meet the continuing educational requirements to maintain their professional certification. Those individuals that need to maintain their professional proficiency will require the courses we are developing in this proposal. The Association of Official Seed Analysts has approximately 150 certified seed analysts and the Society of Commercial Seed Technologists have approximately 185 registered seed technologists. These individuals are required to take a certain number of educational courses in order to maintain their status. To determine the highest priority for the next group of courses to be developed, a survey was conducted in 2002. This survey was sent to seed industry representatives, USDA and State seed laboratory personnel. The summary of the survey results are indicated in Table 1.

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Courses that did not have at least 70% of the respondents indicating they were important were not given a high priority.

This proposed project will build on the initial four courses being offered by Colorado State University to seed science students through distance education. A national distance education program in seed science with six new one-credit modular courses is being proposed. These courses include: Vigor Testing; Seed Longevity, Deterioration, and Storage; Vegetable Seed Production; Seed Dormancy; Large Seeded Legume Production; and Seed Conditioning.