Creating open education resources for teaching and community development through action research: The milk production and hygiene module

Abstract

One of the cornerstones of the AgShare program is the application of an information loop of action research in the training of graduate students to generate new and practical educational materials and interventions for creating open education research (OER) modules for teaching at universities, and for designing interventions and training programs for making improvements in the dairy value chain in Uganda. One major output of the action research project was the generation of data for use in partial fulfillment of a master of science in Agribusiness and a master of science in Livestock Development, Planning, and Management by participating students. A milk production and hygiene OER module was developed based on components in milk safety, dairy policy, contaminants in milk and dairy products, quality assurance, and dairy planning and management. The OER module was incorporated into an existing graduate-level course at Makerere University. As the AgShare approach continuously updates educational materials through the information loop, this program ensures that university training of students is applicable to the current needs of the dairy industry.