Creating a Grazing Systems Module for the International Forage and Grasslands Curriculum.

An international team of forage, grassland, and agroecosystem specialists is developing an International Forage & Grasslands Curriculum, based on a previously developed United States-based Forage and Grasslands Curriculum. It will be available online to support college-level introductory classes. This presentation will illustrate the pedagogical structure of instructional modules by describing the Grazing Systems module. Grasslands cover 26% of the earth’s surface and 80% of agriculturally productive land and provide the forage resource for grazing livestock and numerous environmental services. Mismanagement of grasslands through overgrazing has led to reduction of the available forage and economic well-being of grazers, desertification, dust storms, and loss of ability to serve as water catchments, sources of biodiversity, and as a carbon sequestering landscape to alleviate greenhouse gas emissions. Integrating concepts from an international team of specialists will provide a unique, multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural approach to managing forage and grassland agroecosystems that will help students better understand the global implications of forage and grassland management. By having grassland scientists from several countries assist with the project it will ensure that all aspects of grassland management and international differences are considered and included.  This project will also use compelling video, graphics, and case studies combined with effective teaching methodologies. Results-based management techniques and logframe analysis will be used to define goals, activities, and impacts. The International Forage and Grasslands Curriculum is being created by specialists in the areas of forage crops, agroecology, curriculum and instructional design, communication, graphic arts, and information science. The development team will work with regional and topical experts to create the content for the module and measure effectiveness and impacts by assessing pre- and post- instruction understanding of concepts addressed in this module.