Abstract:

Knowledge exchange and information dissemination, including the implementation of Advisory Services, are an essential component of the Rural Development policies outlined in the current strategic framework that regulates the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (2023-2027). The Andalusian Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA), whose overall objective is to contribute to the modernization of Andalusia's agricultural, fishery, and food sectors, as well as improve their competitiveness through research, innovation, technology transfer, and training for farmers, fishermen, advisors, and other workers of these sectors. Considering the thematic objectives described both in the previous programming framework of the Rural Development Plan of Andalusia 2014-2022, the current strategic CAP plan 2023-2027 and in response to newly detected training needs, a training program for knowledge transfer was set up to meet the specific training needs of the specialized personnel of the agricultural advisory services in Andalusia. This resulted in a comprehensive training program that currently consists of various online courses hosted on IFAPA's online training platform, belonging either to the “Transversal Advisor Training” or the “Specialized Advisor Training” program. The former is a prerequisite for advisors employed by organizations that ultimately receive a public grant to provide advisory services to farmers, while the latter complements the training of each advisor according to their individual training needs.

This training is implemented as a blended-learning modality to make it compatible with the active work situation of our target audience. A 100-hour comprehensive training course for advisors has been designed, including two face-to-face sessions and a specialized training package of over 500 hours covering diverse topics comprising a total of 14 courses.

The methodological approach for digital content design and development is complex and consists of a development phase where the technical and methodological components are developed and a digitalization phase where the former is transformed into digital content. The latter phase is committed using the Articulate suite, which allows proper coding to include all necessary internal or external resources, under the SCORM 1.2 standard for proper visualization and integration with Moodle.

Our contents comply with IFAPA’s established standards which include responsive materials, are adapted for technical multi-device and multi-platform requirements, comply with accessibility guidelines according to UNE 66181 Quality Standards for E-learning and integrate multiple highly personalized educational interactive resources based on specific needs. Furthermore, this work includes an overview of the most frequently used typology of multimedia resources within our methodological online course model.

A review of IFAPA´s advisors training program during 2019-2024 shows that more than 2000 students were trained, of which 42% were women. A total of 87 courses and 11 training sessions have been offered, amounting to a total of 98 training activities (as of July 10th, 2024) totaling 5890 teaching hours. Within this framework and based on the excellent evaluation feedback from students, work continues to expand our offer, especially on organic farming for which currently a strong training demand exists.

Keywords:

Agrarian e-learning, Agricultural advisors, Knowledge transfer.