Design and implementation of virtual simulation-based experimental teaching for quarantine forest diseases

Forest pathology is a fundamental and compulsory course widely offered in forestry colleges and universities in China. However, due to the epidemic characteristics of forest diseases, experimental teaching in forest pathology has long faced several challenges. Firstly, it is challenging to systematically execute the teaching within a limited time, as it is not feasible to comprehensively demonstrate the entire disease process and development patterns. Secondly, it is difficult to accurately depict the real situation, as the existing experimental conditions cannot fully simulate the wild environment. Thirdly, the teaching style is constrained due to the irreversible nature of inoculation experiments. Moreover, major forest diseases involve quarantine pathogens, making it inappropriate to conduct such experiments in open environments. The introduction of virtual simulation experiments provides a viable technical solution to address these challenges.

This project has been initiated to address a pressing national concern: the control of pine wilt disease, a highly significant quarantine disease in China. It focuses on the most critical prevention step (disease diagnosis) of this disease to carry out the experiment design. The project is supported by extensive teaching and research achievements accomplished by our research group over the past two decades. In addition, the project leveraged virtual simulation technology to introduce classic disease diagnosis experiments into a virtual laboratory, thereby enabling full reproduction of the entire process of pine wilt disease diagnosis and pathogenicity determination. The system recreates highly realistic virtual environments, including wild forests, laboratories, and greenhouses. The diagnostic process is meticulously structured into three primary modules: disease cognition, disease diagnosis, and pathogenicity determination, comprising 14 interactive steps corresponding to 24 assessment points. The multilevel assessment method enables comprehensive evaluation of the experimental outcomes and students’ abilities to analyze and solve problems in error-tolerant scenarios, while also helping optimize the curriculum system and experimental teaching content.

The experiment successfully addressed several issues, such as the prolonged duration of pine wilt disease diagnosis experiments, the irreversibility of destructive experiments, the stringent requirements for experimental environments, and the lack of suitable conditions in non-infected areas. It has effectively compensated for the disadvantages of traditional forest pathology experiments. The experimental background data are derived from long-term scientific achievements obtained by top national research teams, providing substantial data support for the establishment of experimental projects, facilitating the transfer of recent advances into teaching, and ensuring the validity of contents and the accuracy of results while also reflecting innovation and cutting-edge techniques. The virtual experiment begins with a distressing depiction of pine wilt disease, which has led to a substantial mortality of pine trees and a consequent ecological crisis. The sequence of events commences with a simulation request from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. This configuration will help users in dedicating themselves to experiments in disease diagnosis and pathogen identification. The program enables students to engage in experimental simulation, online interaction, and experimental assessment, thereby achieving closed-loop verification of Koch’s postulates within constrained teaching time, satisfying the systematic integrity of experimental teaching content.

This virtual simulation experiment underscores the importance of innovation in experimental teaching models and the advantages of virtual simulation technology. It expands the breadth and depth of experimental teaching in forest pathology, achieving a profound integration of modern information technology with experimental teaching methodologies. Additionally, it incorporates political elements to enhance students’ identification with their major. Through a dual-dimensional training model of “technical ability + political literacy”, it effectively cultivates students’ sense of social and professional mission, stimulates their patriotic sentiments of being a tree doctor, and provides strong support for cultivating high-quality agricultural and forestry talents in the new era.