Creating Open Education Resources for Teaching and Community Development through Action Research: An Overview of the Makerere AgShare Project

Abstract

The AgShare Phase I Program, conducted at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, was created to create open education resources for teaching and community development through action research. The study was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of investigators from fields of veterinary medicine and agri-business. Two Master of Science students conducted dairy value chain action research that produced case materials that were used to create OER course modules (milk hygiene and marketing modules), and design interventions that would improve milk production, quality and safety, reduce milk spoilage, increase prices received by farmers, and support on-farm processing of yogurt and other dairy products. This research was used in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Master’s degree in Livestock Development, Planning and Management (MLD) and the Master’s degree in Agri-business Management (M Agbus Mgt) by these students. The conceptual design, implementation, monitoring, and impacts of action research on teaching, students learning, and the dairy industry are discussed in detail.

Milk Hygiene in Rural Southwestern Uganda: Prevalence of Mastitis and Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles of Bacterial Contaminants of Milk and Milk Products

“…The study district had a significantly high burden of mastitis in the two subcounties among the sampled farms. Some of the common practices in this area that did predispose to mastitis are deficient dry cow therapy, unhygienic milking practices (such as sharing the same milking towel among different cows), milk men not washing their hands with clean water before milking and in between milking procedures of different animals, and the absence of a milking parlor, among others, as described by Kaneene et al [ 11 ] and Abrahmsén et al [ 7 ]. Persistence of these factors in the area may be attributed to high costs associated with practicing some of the recommended activities that contribute to reduced mastitis prevalence.…”

“…This study set out to determine the prevalence of mastitis and its associated microbial agents and to assess their possible drug resistance against the available therapeutic agents on the market. This may form a basis to advance appropriate extension advice to farmers, local veterinarians, and the other relevant stakeholders, as well as open areas of further research [ 11 ].…”

An Uneasy Relationship: Open Educational Practice and Neoliberalism

“…While we see examples of OER and OEP that can be read as neocolonialist [7] [19]. We also see the emergence of approaches to openness which start to question the role of the academy in society, for example action research approaches to practical problems like agricultural productivity which break down the barriers between academics and society [20], where again it is about what openness enables. We sense a common purpose, but also common questions, we end by asking whether we are in danger of becoming complicit in the creation of the neoliberal state through propping it up, and if so, how to reshape the path of openness.…”

The Impact of Open Development Initiatives in Lower‐ and Middle Income Countries: A Review of the Literature

“…A common strategy to evaluate open initiatives was to measure the efficiency or effectiveness of the initiative against the initial objective; however, initial objectives were not usually related to wider development contexts or goals. There were many examples of improved learning outcomes through the use of OERs (Zeng et al, 2014;Kaneene et al, 2013). Adoption rates of open source software were also revealed, usually in the health and library domains, and confirmed lower cost as main driver for choosing OSS (Karopka et al, 2014;Aminpour et al, Scopus ICTD 2014).…”