2nd Quarter 2008
Quality Online Agricultural Education for Sustainable Development through CGIAR-UN Cooperation
by Wayne Nelles (Head, Capacity Strengthening Department, CIP)
The ICT-KM Online Learning Resources (OLR) Project conducted a short course as part of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) thematic review of its Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD) activities. The ICT-KM OLR project, which is hosted by CIP, brought a CGIAR-UN collaborative perspective with a timely substantive contribution to these debates.
The course was offered on 15 May 2008 under the auspices of UNCSD's Learning Center, which aims to provide practical teaching and training on topics of relevance to UNCSD themes. Jan Beniest (ICRAF), Thomas Zschocke (UNU) and Wayne Nelles (CIP) co-facilitated the event which focused on how quality education discussions and tools can help advance our knowledge and application of SARD while supporting online access to, and use of, agricultural research to address better global food security, poverty reduction and sustainable development goals.
Thomas demonstrated theoretical and practical dimensions of quality in educational resources including their fitness for purpose, consistency, value for money and appropriate learning outcomes. He presented an example of CIP's "T'ikapapa" project to illustrate food quality control while also pointing to international standards and organizations such as the FAO and WHO, as well as instruments such as the Codex Alimentarius food standards and Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs). He showed how a quality management system is a continuous feedback and improvement process. He also presented different examples of how quality controls might be applied through International Standards Organization (ISO) standards, European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and other tools or systems applied to education and training for the agriculture sector.
Jan presented practical examples from ICRAF of applied quality assurance in research-based training in African agro-forestry. He discussed examples of "blended learning" –combining face-to-face group training and online education with scientists as resource persons to help insure programs are based on high quality agricultural research. Using the ICRAF training process to illustrate, he showed how courses can be developed and delivered through careful assessment of research support needs, followed by identification of training objectives and plans with appropriate evaluation mechanisms for quality assurance. Beyond ICRAF's case, Jan also demonstrated the state of the CGIAR's current online learning management system with selected examples of reusable learning objectives (RLOs) and courses. He also pointed to some of the scaling-up challenges facing the CGIAR.
Wayne presented a broader overview of pedagogical, policy and practical challenges for OLR initiatives amid lack of consensus on agricultural research and education goals, as well as need for shared definitions for what constitutes quality and sustainability in agriculture and agricultural education or research. This linked related challenges for the CGIAR with broader discussions and applications across the UN system and other international organizations about insuring quality in "Education for All" goals as well as in the 2005-2014 UNESCO-sponsored United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) commitment to quality education and training.
Phase III of the OLR Project, now in planning stages, should include more strategic CGIAR-UN cooperation with better implementation of new quality agricultural education standards and tools online.
The OLR PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded from the UNCSD Learning Center at http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd16/learning_centre.htm
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by Wayne Nelles (Head, Capacity Strengthening Department, CIP)
The ICT-KM Online Learning Resources (OLR) Project conducted a short course as part of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) thematic review of its Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD) activities. The ICT-KM OLR project, which is hosted by CIP, brought a CGIAR-UN collaborative perspective with a timely substantive contribution to these debates.
The course was offered on 15 May 2008 under the auspices of UNCSD's Learning Center, which aims to provide practical teaching and training on topics of relevance to UNCSD themes. Jan Beniest (ICRAF), Thomas Zschocke (UNU) and Wayne Nelles (CIP) co-facilitated the event which focused on how quality education discussions and tools can help advance our knowledge and application of SARD while supporting online access to, and use of, agricultural research to address better global food security, poverty reduction and sustainable development goals.
Thomas demonstrated theoretical and practical dimensions of quality in educational resources including their fitness for purpose, consistency, value for money and appropriate learning outcomes. He presented an example of CIP's "T'ikapapa" project to illustrate food quality control while also pointing to international standards and organizations such as the FAO and WHO, as well as instruments such as the Codex Alimentarius food standards and Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs). He showed how a quality management system is a continuous feedback and improvement process. He also presented different examples of how quality controls might be applied through International Standards Organization (ISO) standards, European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and other tools or systems applied to education and training for the agriculture sector.
Jan presented practical examples from ICRAF of applied quality assurance in research-based training in African agro-forestry. He discussed examples of "blended learning" –combining face-to-face group training and online education with scientists as resource persons to help insure programs are based on high quality agricultural research. Using the ICRAF training process to illustrate, he showed how courses can be developed and delivered through careful assessment of research support needs, followed by identification of training objectives and plans with appropriate evaluation mechanisms for quality assurance. Beyond ICRAF's case, Jan also demonstrated the state of the CGIAR's current online learning management system with selected examples of reusable learning objectives (RLOs) and courses. He also pointed to some of the scaling-up challenges facing the CGIAR.
Wayne presented a broader overview of pedagogical, policy and practical challenges for OLR initiatives amid lack of consensus on agricultural research and education goals, as well as need for shared definitions for what constitutes quality and sustainability in agriculture and agricultural education or research. This linked related challenges for the CGIAR with broader discussions and applications across the UN system and other international organizations about insuring quality in "Education for All" goals as well as in the 2005-2014 UNESCO-sponsored United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) commitment to quality education and training.
Phase III of the OLR Project, now in planning stages, should include more strategic CGIAR-UN cooperation with better implementation of new quality agricultural education standards and tools online.
The OLR PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded from the UNCSD Learning Center at http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd16/learning_centre.htm
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