Abstract:

Spain is the first European country in the production of organic fresh food, mainly fruits and vegetables. Nevertheless, the level of industrialization of this kind of raw material is still not enough developed, mainly due to the lack of specialized training and specific research in this field. Thus, more training and research is needed in this area to contribute to the successful development of this sector in our country.
In this paper, how the structure and content of the master course “Organic food processing” has been organized to meet the current needs in the sector is detailed. Moreover, the satisfaction level of student obtained during the first year of teaching (academic year 2013-2014) has been analyzed.
To this aim, lectures have been organized taking into account some particularities of organic certification such as: raw materials production, food processing, use of additives and packaging. To support these contents, seminars with experts from organic production, industry and others (from counseling, promotion and certification agencies) have been organized. In the practical activities, the students work in groups on a specific type of industry to implement contents from lectures. The laboratory work is related with the quality control of organic products from a chosen industry.
The assessment of students is carried out through 2 tests, which punctuate a 60% of the final score. The practical work represents 40% of the final score.
Internal surveys were conducted to evaluate and assess the degree of acceptance and satisfaction with subject. The questionnaire takes into account the following aspects of the course: previous knowledge of the students, satisfaction with the participation of experts, knowledge acquired and applicability. The participation of students in this survey is anonymous and voluntary.
From the result of the last year, a 70% participation level of students was achieved. The results showed that most of students had no prior knowledge about this topic. The content of the course and how it had been addressed well evaluated and the contribution from the experts was found to be very satisfactory.
Around 93% of the enrolled students obtained a mark higher than 7 (out of 10), and the 43%, over 9; thus being a good indicator of the degree of learning achieved by the students.

Keywords:

curricula development, assessment, course planning