SAEC-DE Pilot Project

Strengthening Agricultural and Environmental Capacity through Distance Education

Introduction

The unique aspect of this international distance education project is the partnership arrangements that provide for tapping the knowledge base of a CGIAR center and a university from a developed country in collaboration with two African universities. 

The partners in this project are the University of Florida and CIAT, which have a long history of collaboration through an active cooperative agreement, and the University of Nairobi and Makerere University, which provide four students for the project. 

Project Goals

The goal of the pilot project is to demonstrate an innovative and effective approach to making higher education more accessible and relevant to international participants working in the agricultural and natural resource development field. This will result in an increase in well trained graduates  working in local and regional institutions. 

The project will: 

• help provide accessible education through a new mode of distance education
• address gender constraints by making education more accessible to women who cannot leave their homes for long periods of time
• combine excellent degree education with locally relevant research
• address individual and institutional capacity building in context of constraints in resources and available infrastructure (food, health), and 
• increase awareness of distance education delivery internationally.

Objectives

The general objectives of the Pilot Project in East Africa are:

• Develop long-term collaboration for capacity building
• Demonstrate an alternative/complimentary model for long-term training giving access to high quality research degrees and experiences appropriate to local context
• Increase capacity of individuals and institutions in relevant programs and distance education
• Advance distance education in our own institutions.

Audience

This program seeks to provide training for degree seeking students currently employed at CIAT (or other international centers) as research assistants and research associates, or working at partner local universities. 

This opportunity is of special interest for those researchers who hold professional positions and therefore cannot be away for two or three years to carry out postgraduate studies.  

One Student's View

Marcela Quintero, a distance education student currently working as a research assistant at CIAT, focusing on valuation of and payment for environmental services in the Andean region, highlights the following advantages of the Master of Science in Soil and Water Science through distance education:

”The classes are given using appropriate communication technologies that make distance education classes very similar to an on-campus class. There is a calendar with at least one hour live class per week where the week theme is discussed with professors and classmates. Also bulletin boards are used on a daily basis to enhance the interaction and resolve questions about reading, lab and homework assignments.

There is a continuous support from the professor supervisor of UF who is permanently following up the student progress on classes and on the development of the research proposal. Even, when possible, the supervisor is able to visit the study site of the thesis project.

The credits-hours accomplished in this master program can be part of the credits required for an actual Ph.D degree at UF. In consequence, to get a PhD degree requires about 3 years after completing the master program.”